Ken Greenberg

Ken Greenberg is an urban designer, teacher, writer, former Director of Urban Design and Architecture for the City of Toronto and Principal of Greenberg Consultants. For over four decades he has played a pivotal role on public and private assignments in urban settings throughout North America and Europe, focusing on the rejuvenation of downtowns, waterfronts, neighborhoods and on campus master planning, regional growth management, and new community planning. His work sits at the intersection of urban design, architecture, landscape, mobility, social and economic development.

Cities as diverse as Toronto, Hartford, Amsterdam, New York, Boston, Montréal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, St. Louis, Washington DC, Paris, Detroit, Saint Paul and San Juan Puerto Rico have benefited from his advocacy and passion for restoring the vitality, relevance and sustainability of the public realm in urban life. In each city, with each project, his strategic, consensus building approach has led to coordinated planning and a renewed focus on urban design. He is the recipient of the 2010 American Institute of Architects Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Design Excellence and the 2014 Sustainable Buildings Canada Lifetime Achievement Award. Involved in many grass roots and community initiatives he has served as a Board Member of Park People, a nonprofit dedicated to the improvement of Toronto's parks, is President of the Wellington Place Neighbourhood Association and the Myseum Board of Directors. He was a cofounder and Vice Chair of the City Building Institute at Ryerson University in Toronto and served as a member of ULI Toronto Chapter Advisory Board. A frequent writer for periodicals, He is the author of Walking Home: the Life and Lessons of a City Builder published by Random House and Toronto Reborn; Design Successes and Challenges published by Dundurn.

He played a leading role as urban design lead and client representative and now member of its Board for The Bentway, the transformation of a major public space under the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto. He is currently serving as a strategic advisor to the city of Brampton. He was selected as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2020. He was also awarded an Honourary Doctorate by the University of Toronto in 2020 for his outstanding service for the public good as a tireless advocate for restoring the vitality, relevance and sustainability of the public realm in urban life.