People

This project is led by Lew Hopkins.

Lewis D. Hopkins

Professor Emeritus of Urban and Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture

PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 1975

Lew Hopkins investigates how plans are made and used, how these processes could be improved, and how computing tools can enhance these processes.  His recent book, Urban Development: The Logic of Making Plans, (now available in Chinese) discusses how plans work, under what circumstances plans are useful, how the effectiveness of plans can be evaluated, and what the scope of plans should be. He is currently developing tools for Information Systems of Plans (ISoP), which are web-based systems to access the intents and actions in “networks” of plans of different scopes from different agencies, created at different times.  The goal is to operate effectively in a world of many actors who are making plans frequently, rather than focus on getting one plan made and agreed on. Development of ISoPs relies on ethnographic observation of plan making and plan using practices, rapid prototyping of components of planning support systems, and using ISoPs in real settings.

Lew was head of the department for 13 years, chaired the Planning Accreditation Board, and was editor of the Journal of Planning Education and Research. In 1997-98, he was a Fulbright scholar in Nepal. Lew teaches planning theory, planning analysis, and planning workshops.  

Graduate student assistants working on this project:

Anuttama Dasgupta

Nikhil Kaza

Laura Kinsell

Shawn Strate

Website support

Website support is provided by the LEAM Laboratory in the Department of Urban Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Varkki Pallathucheril

Yong Wook Kim