Robert G. Shibley

Professor

office : 272 Hayes Hall
phone : 716 829 3485 x 218
e-mail : rshibley@buffalo.edu
web: www.urbandesignproject.org

Research and Teaching Areas

urban design practices and processes; downtown redevelopment; waterfront planning; cultural tourism planning; architectural design and placemaking.

Courses

Professor Shibley teaches seminars on American Urbanism and Sustainable Design: Democracy, Ecology and Urban Placemaking in addition to offering a joint Architecture and Urban Planning studio/practicum on Urban Design.  He directs the Urban Design Specialization and advises students in the dual M. Arch/MUP degree program.

Academic and Professional Experience

Professor Shibley came to Buffalo in 1982 to chair the Department of Architecture, serving until 1990 when he founded The Urban Design Project (UDP), a center for the study and practice of urban design. Prior to his appointment to UB, Professor Shibley was director of the US Department of Energy's Passive and Hybrid Solar Commercial Buildings Program (1980-82) and practiced architecture as a client representative for the Office of the Chief of Engineers, US Army Corps of Engineers (1970-80). Since 1974, he has also been a principal in The Caucus Partnership: Consultants on Environmental and Organizational Change serving forty-seven clients in twelve states and five countries.

Selected Research and Professional Awards

Professor Shibley was awarded the James Haecker Award for Distinguished Leadership in the Advancement of Architectural Research from the Architectural Research Centers Consortium, a national organization of university- based architecture and planning research centers. The 2004 citation referenced a career of research advocacy and research awards received through his leadership in Federal Civil Service and including his term of service at the University at Buffalo.

In 2005 the APA recognized work led by Shibley when they gave the Queen City Hub: Regional Action Plan for Downtown Buffalo top national honors for outstanding planning. Other awards include eight APA local and Up-State Chapter awards in categories including Best Student Project, Comprehensive Planning and Public Education as well as one Special Director's Award.

Additional awards for work led by Shibley include the All American City Civic Empowerment Award for the Downtown Buffalo 2002! Implementation Campaign, and the Environmental Design Research Association Service Award given in 1992 to the Bruner Foundation for their support of the Rudy Bruner Award for Excellence in the Urban Environment. Professor Shibley and colleague Polly Welch were the professional advisors to the Foundation. They designed the program, managed its first two cycles including site visit research and multiple publications leading up to the award. Shibley has continued as a professional advisor publishing additional case books and articles as well as managing subsequent award cycles.

Selected Public Service

Professor Shibley co-authored the City's first comprehensive plan in over thirty years and led the Urban Design Project team in the development of the Buffalo Waterfront Corridor Initiative, an implementation and strategic plan process implementing Buffalo's Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan. He was also a co-author of the Erie Niagara Cultural Tourism Initiative. From 1995-1997 Professor Shibley served as the Special Assistant to Buffalo Mayor Anthony M. Masiello. In Chautauqua County from 1997 to 2000, Shibley led an initiative to connect citizen visions with on-going efforts to reform county and municipal government. Overall, the UDP has produced more than twenty-five proposals and plans for communities across the region.  

At the national level, following rioting in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict in 1992, Shibley was named to direct the White House conference, “Los Angeles: Working Through the Violence to Quality Urban Living.” That conference brought together residents, community organizations, city officials and eleven federal agencies to develop collaborative responses to the crisis.  Professor Shibley also served a term on the US Air Force Board of Visitors as one of three architects on the twelve-member professional oversight board consulting on the national and local impacts of Air Force base closures, 1992-1993.

Professor Shibley was nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the State Senate to serve a five-year term as a delegate on the New York State Fire Prevention and Building Code Council. The Council is the legislative body responsible for the administration of the New York State Uniform Building Code and successfully brought the International Building Code to New York (2001 to 2005).

Selected Publications

Professor Shibley has authored or edited eight books, including:

  • Time Saver Standards for Urban Design (edited with A. Plattus and D. Watson) (2003). San Francisco , Calif. : McGraw Hill.
  • Commitment to Place: Urban Excellence and Community (with E. Axelrod, J. Farbstein, and R. Wener) (2000). Boston , Mass. : The Bruner Foundation.
  • Placemaking: The Art and Practice of Building Communities (with L. Schneekloth) (1995). New York, New York: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Urban Excellence (with P. Langdon and P. Welch) (1990). New York, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

He is also the author or co-author of over twenty book chapters, over one hundred scholarly or professional press articles, and sixty-eight book length reports, planning studies, and government publications including:

  • “Housing” (2004). In Competing Globally in Architecture Competitions: Meeting New Design Challenges in the Information Age edited by S. Collyer London, UK: John Wiley and Sons.
  • Shibley, R. , Schneekloth, L. and Hovey, B. “Constituting the Public Realm of a Region,” (with L. Schneekloth and B. Hovey) (2003). Journal of Architectural Education, October, 2003.
  • Schneekloth, L. and Shibley, R. “Implacing Architecture into the Practice of Placemaking” (with L. Schneekloth) (2000). Journal of Architectural Education Vol. 55, No. 3.
  • “New Public Space Competition: Ideas for Buffalo 's Evolving Waterfront” (1999). Competitions Vol. 9, No. 2.
  • “The Complete New Urbanism and the Partial Practices of Placemaking” (1998). Utopian Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1.
  • “ Commercial Building Activities” (1996). In Solar Heat Technology, edited by R. Larson R. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
  • “Evaluation as Placemaking: Motivations, Methods, and Knowledges,” (with L. Schneekloth) (1996). In Building Evaluation Techniques, edited by G. Baird, J. Gray, N. Isaacs, D. Kernonhan, and G. McIndoe. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill.