Professor Vikas Mehta receives Athena City Accolade Award

University of Cincinnati School of Planning Professor Vikas Mehta has been recognized for his body of work by The Center for the Future of Places.

The center is part of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, one of the top technical universities in Europe, located in Stockholm, Sweden.

Mehta was presented with an Athena City Accolade award, given to distinguished scholars with a substantial body of work during the scope of their career that has expanded, enriched and advanced interdisciplinary knowledge within urbanism.

The award is bestowed on a select group of academics for their outstanding contributions within urban and regional studies and city planning. The center was set up to focus on public space, specifically in The New Urban Agenda, Habitat III, and to bring it to the attention of the United Nations.  

“I am honored and humbled by this award and happy to see that my work on urban public space has been pertinent to The New Urban Agenda, Habitat III at the United Nations,” says Mehta. 

Mehta, PhD, is the Fruth/Gemini Chair, Ohio Eminent Scholar of Urban/Environmental Design and professor of urban design at the School of Planning in the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning.

Mehta’s work focuses on the role of design and planning in creating a more responsive, equitable, stimulating and communicative environment. He is interested in various dimensions of urbanity through the exploration of place as a social and ecological setting and as a sensorial art. This work emphasizes the sense of place, design and visualization of urban places, cities and regions as just, equitable and sustainable living systems. Mehta has authored or co-authored and edited or co-edited six books and numerous book chapters and journal articles on urban design pedagogy, public space, urban streets, neighborhoods, retail, signage and visual identity, public space in the global south and more. His book, “Public Space: notes on why it matters, what we should know, and how to realize its potential,” will be published by Routledge in 2022.

Featured image at top of DAAP's exterior. Photo/Adobe