Mariela Alfonzo

Biography: Overall bio: Bridging the worlds of academia and practice, Dr. Alfonzo is the Founder of the startup State of Place, which quantifies what people love about cities, forecasts the value add of walkability investments, and identifies walkability development improvements with the highest value for money. She is also a Research Assistant Professor at New York University, examining the challenges to sustainable urbanization in China. Broadly, her work focuses on the links between urban design and behavior within the context of redevelopment, with extensive expertise on the economic value of walkability. In the Fall of 2014, she was recognized as one of Urban Land Institute's 40 under 40 and in 2013 was awarded a Fulbright to examine walkability in China. She splits time between NYC and Shanghai. Personal bio: Growing up in unincorporated Miami-Dade county, where strip-mall laden highways masquerade as streets and the most exhilarating activity is walking along pencil-thin sidewalks and scurrying across the road to reach the local sandwich shop, I was an early believer in the power of place to shape us – for better or worse. My mission: save others from this lack of quality of life fate. As an academic, I tirelessly gathered evidence to show how the built environment influences our physical, social, and community health. But at the time, the terms walkability and quality of life fell mostly on deaf ears within real estate circles, no less my scholarly writings. So I learned a whole new language. I joined ULI, was appointed to OC’s Young Leader Group’s Executive Committee as university outreach director, and was a quick study, adopting the lingo of ROI, cap rates, and mezzanine finance. But it wasn’t just about talking the talk. I pursued my mission by serving as a bridge between academia and practice and demonstrating the value of urban design, tying dollar signs to walkability, measuring how the intangible qualities of place translate into capital – both fiscal and social. Throughout my career, I’ve spent a lot of time observing and measuring what makes great places. Diving deep into the nuts and bolts of Paris’ romantic lanes, Irvine’s winding cul-de-sacs, Shanghai’s daunting mega-roads, and more, it was clear – streets define communities. The question was: how could I help improve life between buildings? I worked off the premise that “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.” I distilled my learnings into theory – publishing the Hierarchy of Walking Needs, outlining the foundation of walkable communities – and practice – integrating the urban design features that help get people on their feet and create infectious places into a widely-used built environment audit tool. I then tied that place-based data to economic value in a seminal Brookings study that helped change the conversation about walkability’s place in real estate. Consequently, I founded State of Place, translating this evidence-based approach into a tool communities can use to gather data about what’s working – and what isn’t –and identify optimal ways to boost their social and economic bottom line. ULI has had a pivotal role in shaping my career. As I mentioned, before joining ULI, I did not speak developer-ese. Somewhat skeptical of the industry that had been pitted as my adversary, I was pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome I received thirteen years ago, as a then naïve, idealistic urban planning PhD student. My young leader colleagues and I openly traded conversations about how investments were evaluated on the one hand and why wide streets and parking lots detracted from quality of place – and life – on the other. ULI helped bridge an important divide, build my network, and fuel my consulting practice. Moreover, I owe some of my long-standing friendships to ULI. Accordingly, I have striven to pay it forward as a member, participating in many TAPs, contributing content, giving talks, leading community action grant funded research, and most recently participating in a workshop that will guide the development of the forthcoming Building Healthy Places handbook. My gratitude for ULI abounds - it is for this reason that I would like to further deepen my relationship with ULI as a Full Member. EDUCATION Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning, University of California, Irvine, CA Feb 2007 Concentration(s): Urban Design, Redevelopment, Mixed-use, Site- Planning/Analysis, Sense of Community Dissertation: A mall in a former life: How converting failing malls into mixed-use neighborhoods impacts sense of community. GPA: 3.984 Master in Urban and Regional Planning, University of California, Irvine, CA June 2003 Concentration(s): Neighborhood Design, Pedestrian environments Thesis: Walking by design: Towards a substantive theory for neighborhood design and walking. GPA: 3.984 Bachelor of Arts, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL Dec 1998 Major: Psychology; Minor: Architecture GPA: 3.989