Sponsored by the Alumni Association of Princeton University

Panelists:     

Ralph Bennett ’61 *66
Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; Founding Partner, Bennett Frank McCarthy Architects

Tom Wright ’91
President and CEO, Regional Plan Association

Dana McKinney White ’11

PANELISTS

Ralph Bennett ’61 *66
Ralph Bennett graduated with an A.B. in architecture from Princeton in 1961. After two years in the Army, he completed his M.F.A. in architecture at Princeton. He then worked in Boston for Kallmann and McKinnell and Jose Luis Sert before co-founding Massdesign Architects and Planners. He also taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design for five years. A project in Baltimore brought him to Maryland in 1977; he established Bennett Frank McCarthy Architects with two former students for residential work at all scales. He started teaching studio design, theory and drawing at the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, attaining the rank of professor, and, now, professor emeritus. Bennett has taught two courses on sustainability since his retirement in 2008. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a charter signer of the Congress for the New Urbanism.

Tom Wright ’91
As president and CEO of Regional Plan Association (RPA), Tom Wrights leads a 100-year-old civic organization that develops and advocates long-range plans for the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan region. RPA priorities include charging drivers to enter the Manhattan Central Business District; cutting carbon emissions and scaling up renewable energy sources; creating healthy, affordable housing; modernizing the New York City subways; and other infrastructure investments, including a new commuter rail tunnel under the Hudson River connected to a renovated and expanded Penn Station. A frequent public speaker and commentator on regional governance, economic growth and development, and transit investments, Wright is the chair of the New Jersey State Planning Commission and has been a visiting lecturer at Columbia and Princeton.