Gary Okerlund

Biography: Gary Okerlund Principal Okerlund Associates Charlottesville, VA Gary Okerlund, an architect, landscape architect, and urban design consultant, is principle of Okerlund Associates in Charlottesville, Virginia. He also teaches courses in urban design in the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. Professional efforts include Shaping Communities with Transit for the Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation; Transit-Oriented Communities for Northern Virginia, proposing strategies for transit and community development; Washington, DC/Richmond Rail Corridor Study: Community Development Strategies; Brooke Station Community Plan for Stafford, Virginia; New River Valley Rail Corridor Plan; all for the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation; Public Improvements on Main Street, for the National Main Street Center; Streetscape: A Search for Appropriateness, for the National Endowment for the Arts; Visual Values for the Highway User, for the US Department of Transportation, A Network of Livable Communities and A Better Way to Grow for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. He has also participated in the development of numerous other urban design plans and projects. Recognition includes, a Design for Transportation National Award, from the National Endowment for the Arts and U.S. Department of Transportation; several Excellence in Architectural Awards from the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects; and Meritorious Professional Planning Project Award from the Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association. Mr. Okerlund holds a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor in Architecture degree from the University of Washington. He has taught at the Harvard GSD, Washington University in St. Louis, and Salford University in England as a visiting fellow, and served on the Mayors’ Institute for City Design sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts He served as President of the Virginia Downtown Development Association and Chair of Charlottesville’s Urban Design Committee.   (January 2012)