Robert Lipka, MURP, MCIP, RPP
Pronouns: He, Him, His
Contact
University of Alberta
- lipka@ualberta.ca
Overview
Area of Study / Keywords
Urban Design City/Town Planning Universal Design Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)
About
Robert is currently a Principal Urban Designer with the City of Edmonton who has 20+ years working in various cities and countries providing designs and reviews that focus on an array of perspectives including urban design, universal design and crime prevention through environmental design.
He has worked on projects of various scales including master planned communities, transit oriented developments, corridor studies and a number of smaller pilot projects to assist in challenging current thinking.
He provides advice, support and reviews on development applications, city policy documents (eg. Accessibility for People with Disabilities Policy, the Access Design Guide, City Plan, Zoning Bylaw Renewal and many others), neighbourhood renewal, public transport (LRT), street design, traffic safety and much more.
Outside his regular work at the City of Edmonton, he is a volunteer member who provides advice, reviews and support for the Barrier Free Sub-Council, Safety Codes Council of Alberta, the Technical committee on outdoor spaces, Government of Canada and the Design Review Committee, City of Beaumont.
Previous to his role at the City of Edmonton, he worked for 10 years with Auckland Council and Auckland Transport (AT) as a Principal Urban Designer and chair of AT’s Capital Projects Accessibility Group.
In this role, he provided design advice on many projects including land development applications (Auckland Design Manual), policy review and worked with a number of design teams to create the New Lynn Transit Oriented Development, new train stations, bus/ferry terminals, cycling facilities and many other transport related projects throughout the Auckland region.
And finally, in my spare time I enjoy spending time with my family, playing board games, watching sci-fi films, trying to learn to play piano, singing, HIIT training, cycling and ice skating.
Courses
EXLUP 8216 - Community Planning Implementation
Explore a variety of concepts in community planning, including urban design, land development/regeneration/preservation, sustainable mobility, and climate resilience. Emphasis will be placed on incorporating Indigenous perspectives, the principles of inclusive design, and promoting crime prevention through environmental design. Through case studies and real-world development scenarios, students will have the opportunity to put principles into practice, planning with a lens of inclusivity, and challenging the design of the built environment around them by applying these learnings.