Topics | Speeches

Alex Marshall

Alex Marshall is a witty, irreverent and iconoclastic writer and speaker about cities and the forces that create them. Whether it's a subdivision on a cul de sac or a great metropolis on a continent's edge, Marshall seeks to understand and explain the places where we work and live. While many lecturers argue that citizens are at the mercy of larger technological and economic forces, Marshall insists we can control the destiny of our built environments if we understand them.

In his first book, How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl and The Roads Not Taken, Marshall argues that it's transportation systems that create the form and function of cities and metropolitan regions. How we get around, he says, determines how we live – a case as demonstrable for sprawling Silicon Valley to a dense immigrant neighborhood in New York City.

A journalist for more than 15 years, Marshall's work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Boston Globe, Metropolis Magazine, Newsday, Washington Post, Salon Magazine, Architecture and Architectural Record. His topics have ranged from the making of a Frank Gehry building to flaws he believes are inherent in the New Urbanism design movement.

Marshall began his career as a staff writer at the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, where he covered politics, local government, and suburban and urban development. In 1999-2000, he was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, where he studied urban design, architectural history, political philosophy, law and economics.

In 1994, Marshall studied European city and suburban development as a German-Marshall Fund Fellow. He holds a master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University in New York, and a bachelor's in Political Economy and Spanish from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He resides in New York City, where he is senior editor at Regional Plan Association and at the Institute for Urban Design. He has spoken around the United States and in Europe.

Speech Topics

Transportation: The Architecture of Place -- With this lecture of slides and words, Marshall shows how transportation systems through history, from the Erie Canal to the Interstate highway, have shaped our economies, our streets and our homes. The secret to understanding how we live, he says, is to understand the transformative power of the systems we use for moving around, be they foot, car, plane or train. He shows why sprawl would be better tackled through transportation policy rather than through zoning or growth controls. He talks of who controls and shapes transportation, and how it can be used more assertively as a shaper of urban environments.

What's Wrong With New Urbanism? -- From non-functioning alleys to dependence on standard suburban boulevards, Marshall, using slides and words, shows the flaws and destructive tendencies of aspects of this influential design philosophy. Although Marshall compliments and supports many of the movement's ideas and ideals, he says citizens must discern between the effective, and misguided components of this design movement. In general, he argues, much of New Urbanism promotes sprawl by deluding citizens about its causes and cures, and by promoting the typically American fallacy that one can buy one's way out of problems that can only be tackled through societal decisions.

Doing it Together: The Changing Definition of Infrastructure -- From a drink of water to a visit to a hospital, Americans have debated, accepted and changed their definition of what tasks we do cooperatively as a society, and what we let families and individuals seek out through the private, for-profit market. One name for what we do choose to do cooperatively, or in common, is "infrastructure." What's interesting is that historically, the definition of infrastructure has changed and expanded. Whereas once even water supplies were considered a private responsibility, now Americans are accustomed to having government supply water, roads, schools, police, libraries and other functions. Yet, unlike most other advanced societies, we still allow the private market to handle health care, as we once did water and education. In this talk, Marshall gives a history of the changing definition of infrastructure, and suggests that society progresses as this definition expands.

How Cities Work -- Using examples from his book, How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl and The Roads Not Taken (University of Texas 2001), Marshall leads audiences through the changing face of city and suburbs, concentrating on examples in The United States. From the growth-management mecca of Portland and Oregon, to the stage-set facades of Celebration, Marshall explains how and why our communities are changing.

Recent Speeches

Dec. 7, 2007 - “ Richmond 's Future: Global Urban Competition and the Quality of Life.” World Affairs Council, Richmond , Va.

Oct. 17-30, 2006 - “Transport, City Design, and the Myths of New Urbanism.” In Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide , Australia . Sponsored by the Urban Institute of Australia .

April 26, 2005 - “Why Downtowns Rise or Fall.” Symposium on downtown development, Salt Lake City .

May 7, 2004 - “How Does Your Garden Grow,” Iowa Association of Landscape Architects, Des Moines .

Nov. 17-20, 2002 – Liberty, Mobility and Freedom, Portland, Oregon. Invitation-only symposium on transportation policy in the United States. Sponsored by the Liberty Fund of Utah State University.

Oct. 17, 2002 – A City In Time, keynote address to the Association of Bay Area Governments, annual convention. Oakland, Ca.

Sept. 24, 2002 – Transportation: The Architecture of Place. Speech to the Institute for Rational Mobility. New York City.

May 30-31, 2002 – Participant, Sprawl and Smart Growth: Issues for the 21st Century, The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, Mass.

March 20, 2002 – Transportation: The Architecture of Place, Houston. Evening speech at the Rice Museum of Fine Arts to the Rice Design Alliance. Part of "Open City" Lecture Series.

April 15, 2002 – In Common: The Changing Definition of Infrastructure, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Va. Annual meeting of the Friends of Old Dominion University Library.

Oct. 3, 2001 – The Roots of Community, Albany, New York. Keynote speech to the Quality Community Initiatives Forum, New York State Government.

June 15, 2001 – How Cities Work, Ottawa, Canada. Smart Growth Summit 2020.

May 10, 2001 – Journalists Talk About Transportation. Columbia University, New York. Event sponsored by The Institute for Urban Design, and the National Arts Journalism Program. Conference organizer and speaker.

April 27, 2001 – Panelist, Get Me Rewrite: Medias Coverage of Design and Landuse. Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

March 10, 2001 – How Cities Work, Municipal Arts Society, New York City.

June 7, 2000 – Moderator of panel discussion on growth. The Bauhaus Center, Dessau, Germany.

Last updated March 29, 2007

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