Melinda McMillan

About Melinda McMillan

I am a human-centric urban designer. What serves the community? What will allow residents to age in place, access healthy food, and get to their job efficiently? Building within a sustainable and climate-responsive framework is necessary, but your big, beautiful projects need to also address the unique requirements of neighborhoods, cultures, and individuals. Creating something responsive and vibrant requires vision throughout the design process.How does your company\'s diversity statement translate into authentic, effective outreach for your projects? How are you bringing all voices to the table? Does your firm maintain commitments to sustainable, equitable design at every stage? Let\'s talk about art history, post-war sprawl, and utopian visionaries. Good, you like big ideas! Now how does that translate to material sourcing or brand representation in your latest building project? Let\'s acknowledge a site\'s history, a community\'s needs, and build something beautiful. When we collaborate, I draw from innovative and traditional resources. I often bring landscape insight into architectural projects or vice versa. Good design will scale and I love seeing how a well crafted small space can inform a campus or how regional organizational strategies can contract to something intimate. My strengths lie in this diversity of design scales coupled with a wide spectrum of communication and representation skills. Let\'s create beautiful spaces and think big.Education/Licenses: University of Pennsylvania Dual Masters -Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning -Architecture.Registered landscape architect (UT)Registered architect (UT, OR)Professional Experience:Urban public space, city planning, green neighborhoods & schools, inclusive landscapes, community design, campus master planning, TODs, natural playground implementation, multi-modal design, outreach/organization, healing gardens, and sustainability strategies from campus to TI scales

Experience

1. Urban Designer Architect

   PLACE

   Apr 2022 — Present · Portland, OR, US

   Managed multiple teams and projects with budgets ranging from modest to several hundred million, focusing on authentic community engagement and vibrant public realm design.• Incorporated available tools and data into design and management to enhance project outcomes.• Fostered the growth of young professionals within the team, contributing to a positive work environment and team development.• Extensive use of by-hand illustration and digital data representation methods for community engagement, client visioning, or project presentation to local governments• Project work included community outreach, campus planning, urban design, affordable housing communities, complete street design, adaptive reuse, sustainable greenfield planning, garden design, historically sensitive public realm work, cultural placemaking, and urban interventions to improve use and engagement.

Education

• University of Pennsylvania

  Dual Masters, College of Design

  2005 — 2010

• Portland State University

  Bachelors, Architecture

  2002 — 2005

• Brigham Young University

  Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Special Education and Teaching

  1992 — 1995