Michael Alexander

DIRECTOR, SFU CITY CONVERSATIONS

Michael Alexander is Director of SFU City Conversations, and an urbanist focussed on urban policy, public spaces, and the environment. He spent 25 years as a photojournalist for U.S. national magazines and newspapers, primarily at Time-Life. After completing a Sloan Fellowship at the London Business School, he worked on environmental policy in California. He helped create the Presidio national park at the Golden Gate, and was the Secretary of Interior's appointee to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore Advisory Commission. As a board member of San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, he guided SPUR's efforts for construction of the Presidio Parkway from the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. He worked to remove the Embarcadero Freeway, reconnecting the city to its northeast waterfront, and to plan the renewal of the Transbay District and Rincon Hill neighbourhoods. In Vancouver since 2007, he works to replace the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts with new housing, recognition of the lost Hogan's Alley neighbourhood, vibrant park and public spaces, and a revitalized waterfront.