Professional Background: A registered architect since 1977, private practice in the United Kingdom for Covell Matthews and Charles Pearson Partners, in East Africa as Senior Architect for Euroconsult bv., and in Central America as Principal and partner with Julio Torres, Ing.. Experience in commercial development, subsidized housing. Practicing in landscape architecture and planning since 1981, his work has included consulting in tourism development, neighborhood planning, forest management and the application of computing in planning and design.
Teaching: Landscape design, at undergraduate and graduate level, with particular emphasis on human-environment interactions. At the graduate level he teaches in the areas of land resource evaluation and environmental perception.
Much of his teaching takes place in the context of the East St. Louis Action Research Project, a nationally acclaimed service learning program which engages students in partnerships with community residents and leaders to develop innovative planning and organizational responses to urban issues.
Research: Interests include environmental perception, computer visualization, and modeling of large scale environmental impacts. Applied studies have included studies of highway development, of insect pest impacts and logging on national forests, and of the effects of military training activities. Basic research has investigated methodological issues in perception research.
He has particular expertise in the design of on-line information systems that can support community based development initiatives. His work addresses the yawning gap between community planning and design practice and the use of GIS and data delivery tools that can dramatically improve communitiesÕ ability to enact neighborhood-scale problem-solving. He has been an invited speaker and presenter of technical workshops and seminars both internationally and in the US.
boo1@psu.edu, 814-865-9511 (ofc), 814-863-8137 (fax)