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Composition and Terms
Commissioners are appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by City Council. Terms are two years, begin in October, and may be renewed once. When upcoming vacancies need to be filled, applications are due in May. To apply, send a letter and resume to Guillermo Romano (guillermo.romano@seattle.gov). See a list of former commissioners. Commissioners Karen Kiest |
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Karen is a registered Landscape Architect in Washington State with nearly 20 years of experience in the planning, design and development of public and private landscapes in the United States and in Asia. She established her own practice in 2002, after several years directing all urban design, transit, park and community planning projects for Murase Associates in Seattle. She is an instructor in the Sustainable Building Advisor program at Seattle Central Community College and also served on the Seattle Landmarks Board. She graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Biology, and earned a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard. |
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Darrell Vange |
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Darrell is President and owner of Ravenhurst Development in Seattle, WA. He is a commercial developer and has worked for the past twenty years with virtually every major design firm in Seattle and with numerous well known architects in New York, Los Angeles and around the country. His work has often focused on transit-oriented and urban mixed-use development projects. He previously served for four years on the Downtown Neighborhood Design Review Board. He earned an MBA at Harvard Business School in 1978 and a BA at Dartmouth College in 1974. |
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Darby Watson |
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Darby has over seven years experience providing urban design, landscape architecture and planning services in the Pacific Northwest. Her recent experience includes complex public transportation systems, urban boulevard streetscape design, and urban design guidelines. She has also developed county-wide guidelines and codes for transit oriented developments. Darby specializes in sustainable design, urban open space, and the incorporation of public art in urban design. She is a certified planner and brings knowledge and experience in project management, phased development, and innovative regulations and standards. Darby is also the chair-elect of the American Planning Association’s Urban Design and Preservation Division. |
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Juanita La Fond |
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Juanita graduated from the University of Southern California in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in urban planning with emphasis in design, and minor in architecture. Her passion for safe, inclusive, and enjoyable public spaces and transit options has grown through her work in higher education in Los Angeles, environmental consulting in San Francisco, and advocacy for parks and open spaces at the Seattle Parks Foundation. Juanita is delighted to serve the citizens of Seattle and advocate for ecological, culturally sensitive, and community-supportive design in our city. |
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John Hoffman |
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John, AIA, AICP, is the Director of Urban Design with Perteet Inc, specializing in transit and community development projects. A graduate of Washington State and Rice Universities, John has been an urban designer at Wallace, Roberts & Todd in Philadelphia and Skidmore Owings and Merrill in Chicago. John has taught at Miami and Drexel Universities and has been a studio critic in many others. Since returning to Seattle in 1986, John worked at Callison Architecture and Hewitt Isley before joining Perteet. He looks at the design process as a means to achieve thoughtful solutions that are sensitive to the ecological context, responsive to the cultural setting and specific to the physical surrounding. |
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Tasha Atchison |
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Tasha is a licensed Civil Engineer in Washington State. She has been working in transportation planning and design in the Pacific Northwest for the last 10 years, most recently at The Transpo Group Inc. in Kirkland, Washington. Her expertise is in urban development, particularly in the City of Seattle. She has a wide range of experience in the planning and design stages of both private and public projects, focusing on vehicular, pedestrian, and transit modes of travel. |
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Brendan Connolly |
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Brendan is a Senior Associate and Design Architect at Mithun and Licensed Architect in WA State. He is responsible for design of the recent Zoomazium project at Woodland Park Zoo. Other projects he has worked on are: The Teton Science Schools Jackson Campus, Jackson Hole, Wyoming; The Gore Range Natural Science School, Avon, Colorado; Riverwoods Environmental Learning Center, Corbin, Kentucky; and Tulalip Tribal Government Administration Building Tulalip, Washington. He is a top graduate of both Yale University and the University of Washington's Master of Architecture programs. He was a member of the design team that was awarded First Place in the Professional Category for the 2005 C2C International Design Competition. He was awarded the Henry Adams Medal (AIA award to top-ranked graduate in the class of 2001), and the University of Washington Faculty Medal. |
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Dennis Ryan |
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Dennis Ryan, AICP, Associate Professor of Urban Design, Planning and Architecture at the University of Washington, has a Ph.D. and Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Architecture from Clemson University. An educator for 30 years, he was the founding director of the UW's Urban Design Program, chaired the Department of Urban Design and Planning, 1986-1996, and currently directs the interdisciplinary Community, Planning and Environment program. A former member of the Seattle Planning Commission, he has been on the Editorial Committee of ARCADE Magazine since the early 1990's and served as Architecture and Urban Design Critic for the Seattle Times in the early 1980's. |
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Mary Johnston |
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Mary is a registered architect and is a founding partner of Johnston Architects PLLC. In the past 15 years, her firm has designed numerous public places, single and multi-family homes and private buildings. Mary believes good public architecture has great power to invigorate communities and has worked with numerous agencies and community groups in cooperative efforts to improve the civic environment. In addition to being a practicing architect, Mary teaches graduate and undergraduate design studios at the University of Washington College of Architecture and Urban Planning. |
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Norie Sato |
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Norie Sato is an artist who has worked in public art for over 30 years, as an artist, an arts planner, arts commissioner, and teacher. She has experience in transit, educational facilities, civic structures, libraries, convention centers, laboratories, streetscapes, parks and infrastructure projects. She is a member of the national Public Art Network Council, a part of Americans for the Arts. She was a member of the Seattle Planning Commission and the Seattle Arts Commission, and is currently a Board member of Seattle's premier avant-garde performing arts presenter, On the Boards. She has worked on projects throughout the US including projects in Miami, Scottsdale, Salt Lake City, Ames (IA), Madison (WI), Dallas, as well as Federal Way, Seattle, Bothell and Bellevue in our area. |
