Neal Payton

Biography: Neal I. Payton, FAIA Neal Payton is a Principal at Torti Gallas and Partners, Inc. With a focus on the public realm Neal’s work transforms urban environments into socially and culturally diverse, walkable and economically vital communities. Driven by an insatiable curiosity and a commitment to challenging conventional wisdom, he has led multidisciplinary teams in the creation of visionary, yet implementable Master plans, and design guidelines for the redevelopment and revitalization of declining urban centers, brownfields, and vast areas of aging inner suburbs. Working across scales the common themes in all of these efforts are: connectivity to transit networks, a focus on walkable-urbanism; infill; public participation in the design process, and the inextricability of urban design with social equity and economic development. He has been a leader in Transit Oriented Development (TOD) sites throughout the nation, transforming surface parking lots at new transit stations into vital neighborhoods. Among his urban design and planning projects, Neal has led pioneering efforts in the redevelopment of isolated and stigmatized public housing projects into connected communities of choice. This work, done in collaboration with existing residents and neighbors, has resulted in seamlessly connected neighborhoods that are indistinguishable from the surrounding community. A similar passion guided his work for families on U.S. military installations. By asking a simple question, “why can’t military family neighborhoods be designed to a standard similar to the most admired ones private sector?” he has helped to transform community life on installations around the nation and has garnered a host of national awards. Having moved to Los Angeles in 2005 to establish and direct the west coast office of Torti Gallas and Partners, his leadership skills are helping create and implement a transformative vision for southern California, not only through his professio