Professor Roger T. Trancik, FASLA, is an educator and practitioner of urban design. He has written three national award-winning books and has authored 45 professional urban design and planning studies, journal articles, and scholarly papers. He has also lectured extensively at universities and international conferences, and he has shown his work in gallery exhibitions. His areas of specialization are urban spatial design production, theory, and aesthetics, and international practice in the U.S., Scandinavia, Italy, Panama, and China. Trancik is the founding principal of the firm Urban Design Consultants Inc., Cambridge, MA and Ithaca, NY, which has been active since 1971.
Professor Trancik taught at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design from 1970–1981, where he held professorships in urban design and landscape architecture, and at Cornell University since 1982, where he is currently professor emeritus of landscape architecture and city and regional planning (College of Architecture, Art, and Planning) https://aap.cornell.edu/people/roger-trancik. He was honored with the President's Merrill Scholars Distinguished Teaching Award from Cornell in 1988. He has been visiting professor and professor in residence at Chalmers University of Technology's Department of Architecture in Göteborg, Sweden, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhagen, Wuhan University School of Urban Design in China, and the University of Colorado in Rome. He has also taught several semesters in Cornell's Rome Program in Architecture, Art, and Planning and directed the international urban design studies program for Cornell at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark from 1983–2000.
Professor Trancik was awarded numerous research and publishing grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Cornell Institute for European Studies, and the Clarence S. Stein Institute for Urban and Landscape Studies. He served on design arts selection panels for NEA and the New York State Council on the Arts, American Society of Landscape Architects National Committees, and U.S. Fulbright Screening Committees. Professor Trancik was the recipient of the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to Panama in 2003–2005. He was also an urban designer in the offices of Ralph Erskine Architects in Stockholm, Sweden, CBT Architects of Boston, and the Boston-based global firm Sasaki Associates. He earned a B.S. magna cum laude with high honors in landscape architecture and urban planning from Michigan State University, and a Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design where he received the Harvard GSD's Jacob Weidenmann Prize for distinction in design.
Selected Publications
- Trancik, Roger T., Finding Lost Space: Theories of Urban Design. NY: VNR/Wiley & Sons, Inc. Textbook, June 1986-present (also published in Traditional and Simplified Chinese).
- Trancik, Roger T., Layers of Rome: Urban Design, History and Geography. National Endowment for the Arts, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, 2001 (CD, texts, mobile app).
- Trancik, Roger T., Hamlets of the Adirondacks. NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation, 1983-2013 (four books on design and planning in 130 Adirondack villages and hamlets).
- Trancik, Roger T., Garden Cities of the Panama Canal. Clarence S. Stein Institute, Cornell University, 2007-2012 (exhibition, publication).
- Trancik, Roger T., Restructuring Anti-Space: With Applications in Göteborg’s City Core. Chalmers University Press, Göteborg, Sweden, 1981 (monograph).
- Trancik, Roger T., Eight New Town Images: A Comparative European Analysis. Multimedia film production of on-site visuals and sound. Supported by Professor Trancik's Jacob Weidenmann Prize from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 1970.
Selected Awards and Honors
- ASLA National Awards: Finding Lost Space (1987), Layers of Rome (2001), Hamlets of the Adirondacks (1984)
- Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Panama, Urban Design Lectures, Research, Publications (2003-2005)
- Distinguished Alumni Award for Significant and Inspirational Contributions to Urban Design Theory and Practice, Michigan State University (2015-2016)
- Prestigious Jubileum Professor in Residence, School of Architecture and Urban Design, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden (1994-1995)
- American Planning Association Highest National Honors, Hamlets of the Adirondacks, Phases I and II (1987)
- Cornell honors: President's Merrill Scholars Distinguished Teaching Award (1988)
- Cornell honors: Paramount Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching (1993)
- Harvard GSD’s Jacob Weidenmann Prize for Most Distinguished Design Achievement (1968)
- Fellow, American Society of Landscape Architects (1990)
Selected Courses Taught
- Principles of Spatial Design and Aesthetics
- Urban Design Studios / Lectures
- Case Studies in Urban Design
- Seminars on Modeling Urban Form
