Thomas (Tom) Low, AIA, , LEED, CNU - A Director DPZ, Chair Civic By Design Forum Thomas Low is a registered architect and certified planner. He is the Director of DPZ Charlotte and a partner in the firm of Miami-based Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, Architects and Town Planners. Mr. Low has directed numerous projects winning awards from several organizations including the American Institute of Architects, the Sierra Club, the National Association of Homebuilders, and the Environmental Protection Agency for Smart Growth Achievement. He is actively involved with initiatives, projects, research, and education. Mr. Low received his Bachelor of Architecture from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University and a Master of Architecture from the University of Miami with a specialization in Urbanism. He lectures on town planning, planning history, sustainability, urbanism, slow food, environmental infrastructure, and civic engagement and design. Mr. Low has made presentations and conducted workshops for the Congress for the New Urbanism, the American Institute of Architects, the American Planning Association, The Environmental Protection Agency, the Sierra Club, New Partners for Smart Growth, the Institute for Classical Architecture and Classical America, the National Town Builders Association and many grass roots, regional planning and civic organizations. As a visiting professor, he has taught and lectured at many universities including at the University of Miami, the University of North Carolina Charlotte, the College of Charleston, Clemson University, North Carolina State University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Notre Dame. Mr. Low has received grants he used to complete research on town planner John Nolen, early twentieth-century town centers, and transect-based form-based code, all of which are crucial components of his principles and practice. He has published several academic papers, numerous articles, and books including the Light Imprint Handbook: Integrating Sustainability and Community Design; Civic By Design: John Nolen?s Lessons for New Urbanism; and the Light Imprinters Almanac: Engaging Growers and Dwellers. His initiatives include Light Imprint; the Learning Cottage; Slow Food and Slow Urbanism, www.terrain.org, and Civic By Design. Mr. Low is Chair of the Charlotte Region Civic By Design Forum. He is an accredited member of the Congress for the New Urbanism and serves on the board of the CNU-Carolinas Chapter. In addition, Mr. Low is a member of the American Institute of Architects, the American Institute of Certified Planners, the American Planning Association, and an accredited professional member of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Bruce Stephenson is Director of the Masters of Planning in Civic Urbanism at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida. He has worked as a public planner, consultant, and professor, and is author of Visions of Eden, which analyzes the evolution of city planning in Florida since John Nolen drew the state’s first plan, in 1923, for St. Petersburg. His next book, John Nolen and the Art of City Planning is under contract with the Library of American Landscape History. Stephenson’s research focuses on the intersection of city planning and environmentalism and he writes editorials, and articles in academic and professional journals including, the Journal of the American Planning Association, Planning, Journal of Urban History, and the Journal of Planning History. Most recently, Stephenson consulted on the SunRail Commuter Rail station in Winter Park and with the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation, on restoring the Genius Reserve, a 50-acre parcel in Winter Park. In 2008, the project received a “Community Betterment Award” from 1000 Friends of Florida. Finally, Stephenson is a scholar for the Florida Humanities Council and a contributor to “Imagining a New Florida, a PBS documentary that played statewide in May 2010 examining the role of planning, environmental protection and community-building.