Todd Meyer
Title: Principal, Community Development
Organization: Stantec Consulting Services, Inc.
Location: Chicago, IL
With nearly 30 years’ experience, Todd began his career in California with EDAW and later at HOK and SWA with a focus on master planning, landscape architecture and urban design work for clients across the U.S. and globally. A common theme of his work is to integrate sustainable planning principles in his projects, including the USGBC’s LEED ND criteria. As a principal with Stantec, Meyer’s responsibilities include management, design oversight, and business development in the Chicago office. He is an active member of the Urban Land Institute and understands the development, design and construction process— including the fact that many investment decisions are driven by return on investment and internal rate of return from a cost/benefit perspective.
One of Meyer’s professional interests is to promote healthy communities that provide equitable access to recreation, exercise, nutrition, and entertainment venues. He also actively promotes “cultural urbanism” in his projects, working to celebrate regional differences and to create unique places that encourage social interaction. As a daily part of his work with clients and project teams, he is committed to creating beautiful, functional, and high-quality environments for people of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy. That objective in part addresses physical infrastructure, but also considers the natural systems that shape urban areas, using appropriate materials and making the right choices for the environment. He also seeks to stimulate cities, neighborhoods, and districts to be active and energetic in economic investment, unique cultural expression and focused on physical and emotional wellness.
Meyer subscribes to the principles of the Charter of the New Urbanism, which seeks to curb suburban sprawl and to promote authentic urban neighborhoods that are compact and walkable, that provide an interesting mix of uses, and that promote a strong sense of identity and community for both visitors and residents. He believes that as a society, we should promote our unique qualities and that not all places should look the same—or function in the same manner. His approach to planning is to be rooted in the unique context and characteristics of the place as much as possible. This starts with thinking at the large-scale master-planning level and transitions to the detailed design of spaces.