June Williamson

About

June Williamson is a Registered Architect, Professor of Architecture, former Dept Chair, and current Director of Graduate Architecture at the Spitzer School of Architecture at The City College of New York. She is an international expert on suburban retrofitting, a.k.a. the uses of good urban design in the redevelopment, reinhabitation, and regreening, of obsolete suburban built form. She is also co-author with Ellen Dunham-Jones of the 2021 Great Places Book Award-winning “Case Studies in Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Strategies for Urgent Challenges” (Wiley); in it, they describe six urgent challenges, including “Disrupt Automobile Dependence” and “Add Water and Energy Resilience,” and provide dozens of case studies. The book is a long-awaited sequel to their first book in the series, “Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs.” She has also written “Designing Suburban Futures: New Models from Build a Better Burb” (Island Press).

Climate Research

As a researcher of the built environment, Williamson documents case studies of suburban retrofitting, particularly in northern America, and advocates for the same. The low-density, auto-dependent, use-separated development patterns that have dominated new construction in the US and Canada for many decades are major contributors to GHG emissions and climate change. The obsolescence of many suburban commercial properties provide opportunities to refit and retool these degraded landscapes, by design.

Research Citations

Williamson, June, and Ellen Dunham-Jones (Equal contribution). Case Studies in Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Strategies for Urgent Challenges. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2021.

Williamson, June, et al., “Territory.” Janette Kim and Erik Carver, The Underdome Guide to Energy Reform. New York: Princeton Architecture Press, 2015: 98-104.

Kühl, Kaja, and June Williamson (Equal contribution), “Growing Long Island’s Downtowns, The Regional Benefits of Better Parking Design,” Urban Omnibus, March 12, 2014. Online at: http://urbanomnibus.net/2014/03/growing-long-islands-downtowns/

Williamson, June. Designing Suburban Futures: New Models from Build a Better Burb. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2013.

Dunham-Jones, Ellen, and June Williamson (Equal contribution). Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs, Updated Edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2011.