Faculty

Daniel Serda Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Graduate Program in Urban Planning, Executive Director/CEO, Kansas City Design Center, Inc.

Teaching and Research Interests

UBPL500, Planning the American City (Fall)
UBPL715, "Community" in Neighborhood Planning and Design (Fall)
UBPL716, Community and Neighborhood Revitalization (Spring)
UBPL736, Planning Institutions (Spring)

UBPL500 introduces American city planning traditions to undergraduate and graduate students outside the field. UBPL736, a required core course, examines the legal principles underlying the institutions, practices and processes of city planning.

UBPL715 is a graduate seminar that explores the interrelationships between theories of community and models for neighborhood planning and design.  UBPL716 is an implementation seminar for students in their final semester of the UBPL graduate program. This spring (2006), UBPL716 will develop a revitalization strategy for neighborhood business districts in Kansas City, Kansas.

My research bridges ideas about the physical design and rejuvenation of urban places with the politics and policy of urban design in American cities.  At present, I am working on studies evaluating the role of non-governmental institutions in shaping urban design policies, the increasing role of private entities in planning and designing urban spaces, and principles and techniques for developing and sustaining entrepreneurial urban commercial districts.

• Urban Planning

• Neighborhood and Community Planning
• Urban Design Theory and Practice
• Planning History and Theory
• Urban History

• Ph.D., Urban and Regional Studies, MIT, 2003

• M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996

• A.B., Government, Harvard University, 1991 (1992)

• Prof. Serda joined the KU faculty in 2001.  He serves KU in a dual appointment as Director of the Kansas City Design Center (KCDC), a not-for-profit civic and community outreach organization established jointly by the School of Architecture and Urban Design, the Univ. of Mo. - Kansas City, and Kansas State University. The KCDC sponsors public and leadership education programs about urban design, supports applied research and teaching projects in Kansas City, and facilitates public dialogues about critical planning and design issues facing the metropolitan Kansas City region.
  

"Streets and their sidewalks, the main public places of a city, are its most vital organs. Think of a city and what comes to mind? Its streets. If a city's streets look interesting, the city looks interesting; if they look dull, the city looks dull."

Jane Jacobs, "The uses of Sidewalks: Safety"
in The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961)

 

Executive Director/CEO, Kansas City Design Center, Inc.
Board Member, Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance (2005)
Board Member, Kansas City Architectural Foundation (2002-2005)
Advisory Committee, Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Kansas City