Alexander Garvin

At 83 years old, Alexander Garvin physical status not available right now. We will update Alexander Garvin's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Following his graduation from the Yale School of Architecture, Garvin began his career working as an architect at a number of firms including the firm of Philip Johnson and John Burgee. Soon after in 1970, however, he moved into public service, serving first as director of housing and community development for New York City's Department of City Planning (DCP), then as deputy commissioner of the city's Housing & Development Administration department (HDA). At DCP, he arranged financing for projects such as the West Village Houses and was instrumental in the development of the neighborhood preservation program; while at HDA he was responsible for initiating the Participation Loan Program, and, most notably, for extending the J-51 Tax Exemption and Abatement Program to apply to the city's entire stock of multiple dwellings. Later during the Koch administration, he served as the city's director of comprehensive planning. Garvin also spent fifteen years as a private developer of residential real estate between 1980 and 1995. In 1996, Garvin published The American City: What Works, What Doesn’t, his most significant book. Now in its third edition, The American City has become a popular textbook among students of urban planning.

After reading The American City in 1996, Daniel Doctoroff hired Garvin as managing director of planning and design for NYC2012, New York City's bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Garvin's plan for the games became known as the “Olympic X,” which consisted of two axes—a north-south axis along the East River and an east-west axis along the Long Island Rail Road—which would have come together in Long Island City, the site of the Olympic Village. The plan would have provided an impetus for the redevelopment of western Queens, revamped the city's transportation infrastructure, and created new housing, public spaces, and sports facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. While International Olympic Committee ultimately rejected New York City's bid for the games in favor of London's, planners continue to draw inspiration from Garvin's plan as they pursue initiatives such as the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project at the site of the proposed “Olympic Square,” the 7 Subway Extension, and parks along the East River in Brooklyn and Queens such as Brooklyn Bridge Park.

When Doctoroff became deputy mayor for economic development during the Bloomberg Administration, Garvin joined the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), which was responsible for planning the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, including the World Trade Center site, following the September 11th Attacks. There, he served as vice-president of planning, design, and development until May 2003.

Following his work at the LMDC, Garvin founded AGA Public Realm Strategists (formerly known as Alex Garvin and Associates), a strategic consulting firm “that specializes in the development of the public realm—a city’s streets and squares, sidewalks and buildings, waterfront and parks.”

In 2004, the firm was hired by the Trust for Public Land to prepare a study of the state of public space, recreation, transportation, and economic development along the fringes of Atlanta, Georgia. The result of the study was the master plan for the Atlanta BeltLine, a network of green spaces and parks along a loop of rights-of-way of freight railroad corridors that encircle Atlanta. The 22-mile loop would connect the city's 46 neighborhoods and 13 new and renovated “jewels” (public parks, squares, and plazas). The Beltline would begin as a public greenway and paved trail for jogging, cycling, and walking and later incorporate a light rail transit system, supported by increased tax revenue from private development spurred by the trail. In 2005, the BeltLine Partnership (later Atlanta BeltLine, Inc.) was formed to administer the project. The first portions of the BeltLine opened to the public in 2008.

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