Toni Griffin
Toni L. Griffin is UC Berkeley’s Theodore B. and Doris Shoong Lee Distinguished Professor of Real Estate Law and Urban Planning and the founding Director of the J. Max Bond Center on Design for the Just City at the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York. The Center works to advance design practice, research, advocacy, and education in order to build sustainable communities, cities, and regions that are resilient and just. In addition to her work with the Center, Griffin has a private practice located in New York in Urban Planning and Design for the American City, and she serves as a board member of the Regional Plan Association.
Griffin is the former Director of Community Development for the City of Newark, New Jersey, as well as the former Vice President and Director of Design for the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation in Washington, DC and the Deputy Director for Revitalization Planning and Neighborhood Planning in the D.C. Office of Planning. In addition, she has served as the Vice President for Planning and Tourism Development for the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation in NYC. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP in Chicago was her first job as an architect, and while working there, she became an Associate Partner with foci on architecture and urban design projects.
Griffin holds a Bachelors of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame. She received a Loeb Fellowship from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and she taught at Harvard as an Adjunct Associate Professor for five years.
Hear Griffin speak about her work in Detroit through her private practice in Urban Planning and Design for the American City.