Departmental Faculty

Daniel Abramson, MArch, MCP, PhD
Associate Professor, Urban Design and Planning
Adjunct Associate Professor, Architecture
Adjunct Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture

Biography

I try to bring a global-local awareness to the research, teaching and practice of urban design and historic preservation. Having lived and studied in Beijing, China and Vancouver, Canada (as well as Ireland and Poland), I am especially fascinated by the cross-cultural dimensions of communicating design and planning ideas. And with a background in history as well as architecture and city planning, I also take a long view of these subjects in my writing and teaching. I work hard to provide students with hands-on opportunities to practice methods and problems in urban design and preservation, socio-spatial inquiry, and participatory planning--especially in marginal(ized) neighborhoods and communities, and in other countries whenever possible. In the realm of theory, I am currently most excited to understand how national or global norms of urban design and historic preservation take local forms, especially in the context of rapid urbanization and political-economic change.

Also See

University of Washington Web Portal to Community Planning Activities in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China »

Courses

• URBDP 470 Introduction to Urban Design
• URBDP 474 Site Planning: Issues and Techniques
• URBDP 508 Specialized Planning Laboratory
• URBDP 598 Methods of Community Engagement
• URBDP 598 Urban Design Studio Prep

Selected Publications

Abramson, Daniel B. "The Aesthetics of City-scale Preservation Policy in Beijing," Planning Perspectives, Vol. 22, No. 2 (April 2007): 129-166.

Abramson, Daniel B., Lynne Manzo, and Jeffrey Hou. "From Ethnic Enclave to Multi-ethnic Translocal Community: Constructed Identities and Urban Design in Seattle's Chinatown-International District," Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, Vol. 23, No. 4 (Winter 2006): 341-360.

Abramson, Daniel B. and Samantha Anderson. "Planning for the Urban Edge in Quanzhou, Fujian: Foreshadowing an Enablement Approach to Village Urbanization," Projections: the MIT Journal of Planning, Vol. 5 (June 2006): 9-26.

Abramson, Daniel B. "Urban Planning in China: Continuity and Change," Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 72, No. 2 (Spring 2006): 197-215.

Abramson, Daniel B. "The 'Studio Abroad' as a Mode of Trans-cultural Engagement in Urban Planning: A Reflection on Nine Years of Sino-Canadian Educational Exchange," Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Fall 2005): 89-102.

Leaf, Michael, and Daniel B. Abramson. "Global Networks, Civil Society and the Transformation of the Urban Core in Quanzhou, China," in Southern California and the World, edited by Eric Heikkila and Rafael Pizarro. Boulder, CO: Praeger, 2002, pp. 153-178.

"Social Research and the Localization of Chinese Urban Planning Practice: Some Ideas from Quanzhou, Fujian," co-authored with Michael Leaf and Tan Ying, in The New Chinese City: Globalization and Market Reform, edited by John R. Logan, Blackwell, 2002.

"Beijing's Preservation Policy and the Fate of the Siheyuan," Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Fall 2001): 7-22.

"Participatory Planning with a Polish Housing Cooperative: the Context Set by Political Reconstruction," Open House International, Vol. 20, No. 1 (1995): 35-4.