Climate Action
Why it’s time to put urban form on the global climate agenda
Despite the pace and pattern of city-building and urban development, urban form remains a deeply neglected topic in global climate discourse.
Blaine Merker
Blaine is a partner and director at Gehl, an urban design and strategy consultancy based in Copenhagen, New York and San Francisco that makes “cities for people and planet”. As an urban designer, he’s committed to championing public spaces as a technology for economic opportunity, health and equity in a diverse society, and has dedicated more than twenty years to redesigning the public realm for better social and ecological function. A founder of Gehl’s Americas practice in 2014, he oversees a range of projects spanning public and private sectors. As Gehl’s head of climate action, he works to identify the behavioral tipping points that decarbonize neighborhoods. He cofounded Park(ing) Day, the art and design collective Rebar, and has worked with clients ranging from grassroots groups to Fortune 500 companies. He earned his master’s in landscape architecture from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in history from Reed College. He serves as planning commissioner in Berkeley, California, where he lives with his partner and two kids.
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