Vikas Mehta

Dr Vikas Mehta is the Fruth/Gemini Chair, Ohio Eminent Scholar of Urban/Environmental Design and Professor of Urban Design at the School of Planning, College of DAAP, University of Cincinnati. 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 and place distinctiveness, design and visualization of urban places, cities, and regions as just, equitable, and sustainable living systems. Mehta has (co-)authored and (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 The Street: a quintessential social public space (Routledge, 2013) received the 2014 Book Award from the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) and was also a finalist for the 2014 Francis Tibbalds Award for Best Book of the Year. His most recent book Public Space: notes on why it matters, what we should know, and how to realize its potential will be published in 2022. Abstract