Jay Pitter
April 28, 2020 — People
Placemaker and Author
Jay Pitter, MES, is an award-nominated author and placemaker whose practice mitigates growing divides in urban centres. She spearheads institutional city-building projects, rooted in neighbourhood knowledge, focused on: cultural heritage interpretive planning, gender-based mapping, inclusive public engagement, safe streets and mobility, social planning, and healing fraught sites. She also shapes urgent city-building conversations through media platforms such as the Agenda and Canadian Architect—as a keynote speaker for organizations like UN Women and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)—and as a knowledge producer in urban planning faculties across North America. Recently, Jay consulted on Edmonton’s new heritage plan; hosted a professional development luncheon for women city-builders in Detroit; initiated a safe and connected streets engagement following the mass shooting in Toronto, and led (RE)IMAGINING CHEAPSIDE, a Confederate monument placemaking process in Lexington. She is currently collaborating with cities across the world, working on the first phase of HER City (a public space initiative that explores how urban design and social attitudes impact women’s safety, leisure, and play), and writing Where We Live, which will be published by McClelland & Stewart at Penguin Random House.