Mark Francis is Professor and past Chair of Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Davis where he founded and directed the Center for Design Research for twenty years. He works at the intersections of landscape architecture, environmental psychology, geography, art, and urban design to explore the design and meaning of built and natural places. His work is concerned with the theory and design of urban and community landscapes. Trained in landscape architecture and urban design at Harvard, MIT and Berkeley, he is a founding partner of CoDesign/MIG, where he has designed projects in the United States and abroad. At UC Davis he is a member of the Institute for Transportation Studies and the John Muir Institute for the Environment.

He is author of more than 70 articles and book chapters translated into a dozen languages. His books include Urban Open Space (Island Press 2003), Village Homes (Island Press 2003), The California Landscape Garden (University of California Press, 1999), Public Space (Cambridge University Press, 1992), The Meaning of Gardens (MIT Press, 1990; Kajima Press, Tokyo, 1997), Community Open Spaces (Island Press, 1984), and The Healing Dimensions of People-Plant Relations (People-Plant Council, 1994). His work has appeared or been reviewed in The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, Smithsonian Magazine, Psychology Today, Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Chronicle, American Horticulturist, Pacific Horticulture, Progressive Architecture, The Whole Earth Catalog and Landscape Architecture. His book The Meaning of Gardens, edited with Randy Hester of UC Berkeley, was selected as one of the best garden books by The New York Times and is widely used as a text in architecture, landscape architecture and the humanities. Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, writing in The New York Times described him as "a national leader in advocacy planning".

Mark has received awards for his research, writing, planning and design from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Planning Association, and the California Local Government Commission. He has received eight awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects Professional Awards Program, including the Centennial Medallion, their highest design award. He is the only person to receive ASLA professional awards in all four categories of design, urban design and planning, communication, and research. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Architectural & Planning Research and serves on the editorial boards of Landscape Journal, Journal of Planning Literature, Environment & Behavior, Children and Youth Environments and Design-Research Connections. He is a member of the Advisory Boards of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF), Trust for Public Land (TPL), American Community Gardening Association (ACGA), Urban Land Institute (ULI), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG), and Nearby Nature in Eugene, Oregon. He has also served on and chaired several national and international awards juries including the EDRA/Places Awards Program, the American Society of Landscape Architects Professional Awards Program, Orange County Great Park Designer Selection Jury, MAC Open Space and G3 International Design Competitions in South Korea, 13-acres International Design Competition in Vancouver and the CalTrans Excellence in Transportation Awards in California.

He has provided invited testimony to Congress as well as local and state commissions on open space and community design. He has served as an appointed member by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to the USDA's National Urban Forestry Advisory Council (NUCFAC) and is past Chair of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA), where he co-founded the EDRA/Places Awards (with Places Editor Donlyn Lyndon). His research has been funded by the Graham Foundation, Landscape Architecture Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, JJR Foundation, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Endowment for the Arts, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Elvenia J. Slosson Endowment for Ornamental Horticulture, UC Berkeley's Beatrix Farrand Fund, and Norwegian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. He has received the Ralph Hudson Environmental Fellowship, was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1999 for his contributions to knowledge in landscape architecture, and is listed in Who's Who in America. Mark was elected a Fellow of the Institute for Urban Design in New York City in 2006.

His design work is concerned with public space including urban gardens, community open space, nearby nature, and urban places. Built examples include the John F. Kennedy Memorial Park and mixed use complex at Harvard University, Central Park and the Davis Farmers Market, Davis Commons and E Street Plaza in Davis, California, Mission Creek and Plaza in San Luis Obispo, and the award winning Davis Greenway Plan which was adopted in 1990 as the Open Space Element for the City of Davis General Plan. His design for Central Park and the Davis Farmer's Market has been cited as "a new model for urban parks" by the Urban Parks Institute and the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund . The project received a Centennial Medallion from the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1999 as one of the most significant designed landscapes of the past 100 years and an Ahwahnee Merit Award for one of the best projects built in Western U. S. in the last 10 years from the American Institute of Architects, American Planning Association, and Local Government Commission. He recently completed the Master Plan for the 100-acre $8 million Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park for the Indianapolis Museum of Art. He was an invited finalist with architect Giancarlo De Carlo to design Giardini di Porta Nuova, a major new urban park in the center of Milan, Italy. He has also served as a garden design consultant to Cornerstone Festival of Gardens which opened in 2004 in Sonoma, California.

Examples of his publications include Informing Places (Places 2003), Parks as Community Engagement: A Guide for Mayors (Urban Parks Forum, American Planning Association, 2003), Seven Realms of Children's Participation (Journal of Environmental Psychology, 2002), and Village Homes: A Case Study in Community Design (Landscape Journal, 2002). His work on Proactive Practice was recently translated and published in German and Italian. He presented an invited paper entitled Geometries of Garden Meaning at the Horticultural Geographies Symposium at the University of Nottingham in September 2003. He was co-organizer of the "Participatory Community Design in the Pacific Rim" Symposium funded by the University of California Office of the President Pacific Rim Program and held in Seattle in September 2004.  He is co-editor of (Re)Constructing Communities: Design Participation in the Face of Change, which includes papers from the symposium published in 2005.

Mark was commissioned by the Landscape Architecture Foundation in Washington, D C to develop a case study methodology that could be widely used in the profession of landscape architecture. His report was published by LAF and the Herberger Center for Design Excellence in 1999 and Landscape Journal in 2000 and led to LAF adopting a major initiative entitled Case Studies in Land and Community Design. He was asked by LAF to develop the first three prototype cases. The first two, Village Homes: A Community by Design and Urban Open Space: Designing for User Needs, were published by Island Press and LAF in 2003. He is currently developing a third prototype entitled Healthy Public Space: A Teaching Case Study.  His case study method has been recently adopted and republished by the American Institute of Architects as part of their AIA Case Study Initiative and by the Active Living Research Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Mark is a member of and teaches required core courses (LDA 201 and LDA 220) for graduate programs at UC Davis including Geography, Community Development, Transportation Technology and Policy, Tourism Studies, Horticulture and Agronomy, and Social Theory and Comparative History. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at UC Davis in landscape theory, urban open space, community design, and public space.

He is currently co-directing an international research project entitled "Open Urban Spaces" (OPUS) on culture and public spaces in European Capitals of Culture.  The project, with University of Stavanger, Norway, Liverpool University, Technical University of Graz, Austria, Danish Royal Academy, and Swedish Royal Academy, is funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

Mark is also currently developing a manuscript on the theory and design of "mixed-life places" for use in urban design and landscape architecture.

• Fellow, Institute for Urban Design, New York City.  2006 - present
• Fellow, American Society of Landscape Architects, 1999-present.
• Proclamation and recognition from the Davis City Council as one of the pioneers of the Davis bike system, 2008.
• Award for Excellence in Park Planning and Design. California Parks and Recreation Society. Mace Ranch Community Park, Davis. CoDesign/MIG. 2006.
• "One of the most influential figures in environmental psychology". Selected by the Journal of Environmental Psychology and the International Association for the Study of People and their Physical Surroundings (IAPS). 2005.
• Annual Alumni Lecture, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Maryland. 2003.
• Honor Award, Communication, American Society of Landscape Architects, Washington, D.C., The California Landscape Garden. 1999.
• Centennial Design Medallion, American Society of Landscape Architects, Washington, D.C., Central Park and Davis Farmer's Market. 1999 (other recipients include UC Berkeley Campus, Stanford Campus, The Sea Ranch, U.S. Capitol Grounds, New York Central Park, etc.)
• Ahwahnee Merit Award. California Council of the American Institute of Architects, American Planning Association, California Chapter, and Local Government Commission. Central Park and Davis Farmer's Market. 1999.
• Merit Award, Research, American Society of Landscape Architects, Washington, D.C., UCDMC Urban Wildlife Preserve. 1999.
• Jensen Professor of Landscape Urbanism Lecture. School of Architecture. University of Illinois, Chicago. 1998.
• Merit Award, Communication, American Society of Landscape Architects, Washington, D.C., The Healing Dimensions of People-Plant Interactions. 1995.
• Merit Award, Research, American Society of Landscape Architects, Washington, D.C., Public Space. 1994.
• Annual Jens Jensen Memorial Lecture, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 1993.
• Honor Award, Communication, American Society of Landscape Architects, Washington, D.C. The Meaning of Gardens. 1992.
• Merit Award, Planning and Design, American Society of Landscape Architects, Washington, D.C., The Davis Greenway. 1988.
• Merit Award, Communication, American Society of Landscape Architects, Washington, D.C., Community Open Spaces. 1986.
• Award for Exemplary Design Research, National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, DC. The Making of Neighborhood Open Space. 1983.
• Fellow, University of California Humanities Institute.
• Fellow, Norwegian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
• Who's Who in America. 54th Edition, Marquis. 2000.

• Associate Editor, Journal of Architectural and Planning Research
• Editorial Board Member, Landscape Journal
• Editorial Board Member, Journal of Planning Literature
• Editorial Board Member, Environment and Behavior
• Editorial Board Member, Children's and Youth Environments
• Editorial Board Member, Design-Research Connections
• Reviewer of book manuscripts, E F Spon, Johns Hopkins University Press, Island Press, McGraw Hill, MIT Press, Routledge, Stanford University Press, Taylor & Francis, Yale University Press, University of California Press, University of Washington Press, Wiley, Van Nostrand Reinhold
• Expert Panel Member, National Science Foundation (NSF), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), British Research Council, Canadian Council for Scientific Research, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Scottish Research Council, Swedish Research Council
• Program Reviewer appointed by Provost, University of Oregon, Rutgers University, Swedish Agricultural University
• Reviewer, Journal of Environmental Psychology, Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Community Psychology, Journal of Creative Behavior, Journal of Urban Design, Journal of Planning Literature, Landscape Journal, Landscape and Urban Planning, Places, Town Planning Review, Urban Design International, Urban Geography, Proceedings of the Environmental Design Research Association, Proceedings of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, Proceedings of the American Society of Landscape Architects

• Olmsted Scholarship Advisory Board, Landscape Architecture Foundation. 2008.
• Chair, International Design Competition Jury, New Multi-functional Administrative City (MAC) Central Open Space, South Korea. (with Paolo Burgi, Switzerland, Julia Czerniak, USA, Peter Latz, Germany, and Binyi Liu, China). 2007.
• G5 International Urban Design Competition Jury, Chuncheon, South Korea. (with Jon Lang, Australia, Colin Fournier, London, Jeff Ho, Singapore). 2006.
• Selection Jury, Cornerstone Festival of Gardens, Sonoma, California (with Peter Walker, Ken Smith, Marc Trieb and Charlotte Frieze). 2005 - present.
• Orange County Great Park Designer Selection Jury. (with Diane Ghirardo, Michael Rotondi, and Linda Pollak), Irvine, California. 2005.
• 13 Acres International Schoolyards Design Competition, Canadian Society of Landscape Architects and University of British Columbia. (with Peter Latz, Cornelia Oberlander, Mark Dudek and Gina Crandell). 2001.
• Douglas Dockery Thomas Fellowship Jury. Landscape Architecture Foundation. (with James Wescoat, Karen Hanna and Darrel Morrison). 2001. 2003.
• EDRA/Places Awards Jury. Places Journal and Environmental Design Research Association. (with Donlyn Lyndon, John Zeisel, and Anne Vernez Moudon). 1999.
• American Society of Landscape Architects Professional Awards Jury. 1993.
• Excellence in Transportation Jury, CalTrans, State of California, 1994.
• International Schoolyards Design Competition Jury, New York City, 1990.

Beatrix Farrand Fund, University of California, Berkeley; Gerbode Foundation; Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts; Hewlett Foundation; Ralph Hudson Environmental Fellowship; JJR Foundation; Lake Tahoe Conservancy; Landscape Architecture Foundation; National Endowment For the Arts; Norwegian Research Council; Royal Norwegian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research; Stavanger 2008 European Capital of Culture; Elvenia J. Slosson Endowment for Ornamental Horticulture; University of California Transportation Center; University of California Humanities Institute; University of California Office of the President Pacific Rim Grant Program; U. S. Department of Agriculture; U. S. Environmental Protection Agency; University of California, Sustainable Transportation Center.

Harvard Graduate School of Design, Columbia University School of Architecture, Pratt Institute, City University of New York, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland, North Carolina State University, University of Illinois, Urbana, University of Illinois, Chicago, Iowa State University, University of Wisconsin, University of New Mexico, University of Washington, University of Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, UC Berkeley,  UC Irvine, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, and throughout Europe and Asia, American Society of Landscape Architects, Environmental Design Research Association, American Horticultural Association, American Community Gardening Association, Urban Land Institute, California Council of Landscape Architects, Santa Barbara Botanical Garden, Horticultural Geographies Conference (UK), G5 International Urban Design Symposium (Korea), Democratic Design Conference (Japan), Participatory Design and the Future of Cities Conference (Italy), and Conference on Urban Design Guidelines (Norway), OPUS Symposium.

• Design for Ecological Democracy. Randolph Hester. MIT Press. 2006.
• The Global Silicon Home. Shenglin Chang. Stanford University Press. 2006.
• City Bountiful. Laura Lawson. University of California Press. 2005.
• Cornerstone: New Frontiers in Modern Gardens.  2005.
• Roberto Burle Marx. Marta Iris Montero. University of California Press. 2001.
• Meeting of the Minds. Daniel Iacofano. MIG Communications. 2001.
• Ecology and Design. Bart Johnson and Kristina Hill. Island Press. 2001.
• Landscapes for Learning. Sharon Stine. Wiley. 1997.
• Green Nature/Human Nature.  Charles Lewis.  University of Illinois Press.  1996.
• Life Between Buildings. Jan Gehl. Van Nostrand Reinhold. 1993.

Francis, M. "Mixed-Life Places" in T. Banerjee and A. Loukaitou-Sideris (Eds.).  The Routledge Companion to Urban Design.  New York: Routledge. IN PRESS.

 

Francis, M. "A Research Agenda for the Impact of Community Greening Revisited" Community Greening Review. 2009.

Carr, S., M. Francis, L. Rivlin and A. Stone. "Needs in Public Space", in M. Carmona and S.Tiesdel (Ed). Urban Design Reader. London: Architectural Press. 2007. (Republication of work of "most influential writers of the last fifty years")

Book Reviews in Journal of Urban Design, 2009, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 2006 and Gender, Place and Culture, 2006

 

Francis, M. and R. Lorenzo. "Children and City Design: Proactive Process and the Renewal of Childhood". In C. Spencer and M. Blades. (Eds.). Children and their Environments. London: Cambridge University Press. 2006.

 

Francis, M. and C. Bowns.  "Research-Based Design of an Urban Wildlife Preserve".  pp. 183 - 190 in J. Zeisel. Inquiry by Design: Environment/Behavior/Neuroscience in Architecture, Interiors, Landscape, and Planning.  New York: Norton.  2006.

 

Francis, M.  "Urban Parks as Community Places". In J. Jin (Ed.). G5 International  Urban Design Symposium. pp. 87-96. Chuncheon, South Korea.  2006.

 

Francis, M.  "Community Design Reexamined".  In J. Hou, M. Francis, and N. Brightbill.  (Eds.). (Re)Constructing Communities: Design Participation in the Face of Change. pp. 18 -24.  Davis: Center for Design Research.  2005

 

Hou, J., M. Francis, and N. Brightbill. "Reconstructing Community Design." In J. Hou, M. Francis, and N. Brightbill.  (Eds.). (Re)Constructing Communities: Design Participation in the Face of Change. pp. 18 -24.  Davis: Center for Design Research. 2005.

 

Francis, M. "Informing Places". Places. 16, 1: 33 - 37. 2003.

 

Francis, M. "Parks as Community Engagement: A Guide for Mayors". City Parks Forum. Chicago: American Planning Association. 2002.

 

Francis, M. and R. Lorenzo. "Seven Realms of Children's Participation". Journal of Environmental Psychology. 22: 157-169. 2002.

 

Francis, M. "Village Homes: A Case Study in Community Design". Landscape Journal. 21, 1. 2002.

 

Francis, M. "A Case Study Method for Landscape Architecture". Landscape Journal. 19, 2: 15-29. 2001.

 

Francis, M. "Habits of the Proactive Practitioner". in I. Kinoshita (Ed.) Proceedings of the Second Conference of Democratic Design in the Pacific Rim: Japan, Taiwan and U. S. Tokyo. 2000.

 

Francis, M.  "Making a Community's Place".  in R. Hester and C. Kweskin (Eds.). Democratic Design in the Pacific Rim: Japan, Taiwan and U.S.  pp. 156-163.  Mendocino, CA: Ridge Times Press.  1999.

 

Francis, M. "Planning in Place". Places. 13, 2, 1999.

 

Francis, M. "Initiativ-Planaer: ein neues Profil fur die Profession" Garten & Landschaft. 8. 99: 30-33. 1999.

 

Francis, M. "Proactive Practice: Visionary Thought and Participatory Action in Environmental Design". Places. 12, 1: 60 - 68. 1999.

 

Francis, M.  "Anatomy of a Jury".  Places. 12, 2: 44- 47.  1998.

 

Francis, M. "Design at the Edge: Planning and Design Approaches to the Urban-Agriculture Edge". In H. Carter (Ed.) Resolving Conflicts at the Urban Agriculture Edge. Davis: University of California Agricultural Issues Center. 1997.

 

Francis, M. "Childhood's Garden: Children's Memory & Meaning of Gardens". Children's Environments. 11, 1. 1995.

 

Francis, M, P. Lindsey & J. Rice. (Eds.). The Healing Dimensions of People Plant Relations. Blacksburg, VA: People-Plant Council. 1994.

 

Francis, M., "The Making of Democratic Streets." Chp. 1, pp. 23 - 39, in A. Vernez Moudon (Ed.). Public Streets For Public Use. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.

 

Francis, M. & C. Cordts. "A Research Agenda for Community Greening". In D. Relf (Ed.) Horticulture & Human Well Being. Portland: Timber Press. 1991.

 

Francis, M. "The Future of Urban Open Space". Invited Testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Interior Subcommittee on Investigations and Insular Affairs. Congressional Record. January 30, 1990.

 

Dawson, K., M. Francis & S. Jones. "Davis Greenway" pp. 232-233 in Contemporary Landscape Architecture: An International Perspective. Tokyo: Process Architecture. 1990.

 

Francis, M., "The Urban Garden as Public Space". Places. 6, l. 1989.

 

Francis, M., "Control as a Dimension of Public Space Quality." in I. Altman and E. Zube (Eds.) Public Places and Spaces. Human Behavior and Environment. Volume 10. New York: Plenum. 1989.

 

Francis, M., "Changing Values for Public Space." Landscape Architecture. 78, 1: 54-59. January-February, 1988.

 

Francis, M., "Negotiating Between Child and Adult Design Values." Design Studies. 9, 2: 67-75. 1988.

 

Francis, M., "Some Different Meanings Attached to A Public Park and Community Gardens." Landscape Journal. 6, 2: 101-112, 1987.

 

Francis, M., "Urban Open Spaces." pp. 71 - 106, in E. Zube and G. Moore (Eds.). Advances in Environment, Behavior and Design. New York: Plenum. 1987.

 

Francis, M., "Gestaltung Des Offentlichen Raums". Garten & Landschaft. 96, 4: 36-40. 1986.

 

Francis, M. Children's Use of Open Space in Village Homes. Children's Environments Quarterly. 1,4:36-38. 1985.

 

Francis, M., "Community Design," Journal of Architectural Education. 37,1: 14-19. 1984.

 

Francis, M., "Mapping Downtown Activity," Journal of Architecture and Planning Research. 1,1: 21-35. 1984.

 

Francis, M., "Behavioral Approaches and Issues in Landscape Architectural Practice and Education." Landscape Journal, 1: 92-95. 1982.

 

Heder, L. and M. Francis, "Quality of Life Assessment: The Harvard Square Planning Workshops" in Social Impact Assessment, 2nd edition, Finsterbush and Wolf (Eds.). New York: McGraw-Hill. 1981.

 

Francis, M. (Ed.). Participatory Planning and Neighborhood Control. New York: Center for Human Environments. 1979.

 

Francis, M., "Toward Participatory Urban Design." In Proceedings of the First National Conference on Urban Design. A. Ferebee (Ed.). Washington, D.C.: RC Publications. 1978.

 

Francis, M., "Urban Impact Assessment and Community Involvement: The Case of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library." Environment and Behavior, 7,3: 373 - 404, 1975.  

CURRICULUM VITA

PUBLICATION LIST (PDF)

 

 

11/17/09