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        6.14.08

 
 

Associate Professor

BS, SUNY College of Environmental Science
  and Forestry
MLA, Cornell University
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology


Office: 206 New East
Phone: (919) 962-4776
Fax: (919) 962-5206
Email: tomcamp@unc.edu


Courses

Dr. Campanella teaches courses on the history and theory of urban form, the evolution of cities and the built environment,
and the theory and practice of sustainable site planning and urban design.  He also co-led a Study Abroad course on
Chinese urbanization in 2007.

PLAN 651  Urban Form and the Design of Cities
PLAN 550  Evolution of the American Urban Landscape
PLAN 752  Principles of Site Planning and Urban Design
PLAN 499  Comparative Globalization Seminar: Transforming Urban China (w/ Prof. Yan Song)
PLAN 052  Cities and Human Values
PLAN 056  Race, Sex and Place in America (w/ Prof. Michele Berger)


Research, Writing and Practice
Dr. Campanella's work is focused on comparative urbanism, the design of cities and the historical development of the
built environment.  His research and writing bridges the fields of planning, history, landscape studies and historical
geography.  He has particular expertise in American planning and landscape history and the rapid transformation of
urban China in the post-Mao period.

Campanella joined the faculty in 2002.  He also teaches at Nanjing University's School of Architecture in China, and
will be a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in spring 2008.  He is a Faculty Fellow of the
Institute for the Arts and Humanities at UNC, and a former Fulbright fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Before coming to UNC, Campanella lectured in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT and was a
Mercer Fellow at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.

Campanella is a recipient of the Spiro Kostof Book Award from the Society of Architectural Historians, and has also
been awarded the John Reps and de Montequin Prizes from the Society for American City and Regional Planning
History.  In addition to his scholarly work, Campanella has written for Metropolis, Salon, Architectural Record,
Places, Orion and other publications, and he is a former contributing writer for Wired magazine.  He has been a
featured guest on CNN, BBC and several NPR and public television programs.

Campanella has consulted on urban design and planning projects in China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand,
Japan and the United States.  He serves on the Chancellor's Committee for Buildings and Grounds at UNC, and
on the Town Planning Board of Hillsborough, NC, where he recently completed an award-winning restoration of a
200 year-old home.

Prior to his academic career, Campanella worked as a firefighter, EMT and fire lookout operator for the US Forest
Service, Bureau of Land Management and Alaska Fire Service.  He is also a licensed helicopter pilot.



Professional Activities
• Universita IUAV di Venezia "Reclaiming Shanghai." Conferenze 2007 - 5 Citta / 5 Progetti (Venice, Italy - April 2007)

• Nanjing University "Landscape Urbanism and the American City." School of Architecture Lecture Series     
  (Nanjing, China - October 2006)

• Tulane University "Historical Perspectives on Urban Resilience."  How Cities Respond to Disaster: A Panel
  Discussion on Urban Resiliency (New Orleans, LA - March 2006)

• National Building Museum "Urban Resilience and Post-Katrina New Orleans."  Building in the Aftermath:
  Rebuilding the 'Big Easy' (Washington, DC - November 2005)

• The German Historical Institute "Nature, Nationalism and the Origins of Elm Street."  The Place of Nature in
  the City in Twentieth-Century Europe and North America (Washington DC - November 2005)



Public Service
• Planning board member - Town of Hillsborough, NC
• Chancellor's Committee on Buildings and Grounds ­ UNC Chapel Hill
• Board of Directors ­ The Alliance for Historic Hillsborough


Books:
The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution and What it Means for the World
  (Princeton Architectural Press forthcoming in spring, 2008)

The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster (Oxford University Press, 2005).  
  Co-edited by Thomas J. Campanella and Lawrence J. Vale.  A Planetizen "Top Ten Book"for 2005.

Republic of Shade: New England and the American Elm (Yale University Press, 2003). Named one of the
  best non-fiction books of 2003 by the Boston Globe; winner of the 2005 Spiro Kostof Award.


Cities from the Sky: An Aerial Portrait of America (Princeton Architectural Press, 2001).


Selected Publications:
"'Mark Well the Dismal Gloom': Shedding Light on the Great Dark Day of 1780." Environmental History 12:1
   (January, 2007), pp 35-58.


"Longer View: Urban Resilience and the Recovery of New Orleans," Journal of the American Planning Association
   72:2 (Spring, 2006), pp 141-146.

"Transplanting the New Jersey Turnpike to China," in Joseph Rykwert and Tony Atkin, eds., Structure and Meaning
   in Human Settlements
(The University of Pennsylvania Museum Press, 2005).

"'The Civilizing Road': American Influences on the Development of Highways and Motoring in China, 1900-1949,"
   Journal of Transport History 26:3 (March 2005), pp 87-98.

"Eden by Wire: Webcameras and the Telepresent Landscape," in Stephen Graham, ed. The Cybercities Reader
   (Routledge Press, 2004), pp. 57-63.

"Anti-Urbanist City Images and New Media Culture," in Lawrence J. Vale and Sam Bass Warner, eds.,
   Imaging the City: Continuing Struggles and New Directions (Rutgers University Press, 2001), pp. 237-254.