Speck Dempsey is an internationally recognized city planning, urban design, and transportation policy firm serving municipalities, non-profits, and private developers. Recent projects include downtown master plans, walkability studies, transit-oriented developments, urban and suburban infill plans, and designs for new towns, villages, streets, blocks, and buildings. This work has helped to broadly disseminate urban design best practices while also moving the needle in terms of what sort of forward-looking projects can win public support and get built. Our firm is based in Greater Boston but works with clients across the United States and around the world.
WHO WE ARE
WORK WITH US
OUR COLLABORATORS
Recent projects led by Speck Dempsey have included these partner firms:
Able City
Alexander Gorlin Architects
Alta
Arup
Bowman
Confluence
DPZ CO-Design
Dover, Kohl & Partners
Gehl
Halvorson
Howard Stein Hudson
Hunden Partners
Isenberg Projects
James Lima Planning + Development
Kohl Pendersen Fox
Kronberg Urbanists + Architects
MKSK
Nelsen Partners Architects & Planners
Nelson\Nygaard
Nitsch Engineering
Nutter
OJB Landscape Architecture
Opticos
Overland Architects + Urban Design
Pentagram
Perkins & Will
Principle Group
Reed Hildebrand
Sasaki
Shop
Spear Design Group
Stantec
Street Plans Collaborative
Structurepoint
Studio Gang
Toole Design Group
Torti Gallas + Partners
Utile
VHB
Weitzman
Zimmerman/Volk Associates
WHO WE ARE
Speck Dempsey is an internationally recognized city planning, urban design, and transportation policy firm serving municipalities, non-profits, and private developers. Recent projects include downtown master plans, walkability studies, transit-oriented developments, urban and suburban infill plans, and designs for new towns, villages, streets, blocks, and buildings. This work has helped to broadly disseminate urban design best practices while also moving the needle in terms of what sort of forward-looking projects can win public support and get built.
OUR CLIENTS
Our recent clients include public and private entities from around the world.
3MJ Realty
Akridge
American Architectural Foundation
Amway
Arcadia Realty Corp.
BioLogical Capital
CEOs for Cities
Canopy Development
Capital City Dev. Corp (Boise)
Catalyst Asset Management
Champlain Hudson Power Express
City Realty
City of Albuquerque, NM
City of Alpharetta, GA
City of Bethlehem, PA
City of Bexley, OH
City of Boston, MA
City of Brownsville Housing Authority
City of Butte, MT
City of Calgary, ALB
City of Carmel, IN
City of Cedar Rapids, IA
City of Charleston, SC
City of Chattanooga, TN
City of Chattanooga, TN
City of Davenport, IA
City of Des Moines, IA
City of Elkhart, IN
City of Fishers, IN
City of Fort Lauderdale, FL
City of Gahanna, OH
City of Glens Falls, NY
City of Greeley, CO
City of Guayaquil, Ecuador
City of Hammond, IN
City of Houston Housing Authority
City of Lancaster, PA
City of Laredo, TX
City of Lawton, OK
City of Louisville, KY
City of Mansfield, TX
City of Mansfield, TX
City of Memphis, TN
City of Mesa, AZ
City of New Albany, IN
City of Newburyport, MA
City of Norwalk Redev. Agency, CT
City of Oklahoma City, OK
City of Orlando, FL
City of Paducah, KY
City of Rogers, AR
City of Scranton, PA
City of Somerville, MA
City of Tulsa, OK
City of Tuscaloosa, AL
City of Watertown, MA
City of Westfield, IN
City of White Salmon, WA
City of Wichita, KS
City of Worcester, MA
City of Worcester, MA
Civicap
Coastal Development
Colgate University
Conserve Southwest Utah
Continuum
County of Escambia, FL
County of Maui, HI
Davis Companies
Dillin LLC
Downtown Council of Kansas City
Downtown Mobile Alliance
Flagship Homes
Fort Ord Reuse Authority
GP Vivienda
Grand Action (Grand Rapids)
Homewise
ISC Community Development
Indiana Economic Development Corp
Inola
Inspired by Somerset
JBG
Lennar Multifamily Communities
Lionstone Investments
MGM
Mark Development
McKinsey & Company
Michels & Michels
Midtown Atlanta
Natural Systems Utilities
North American Properties
Penzance
Princeton Property Partners
Quaker Lane Services
RMR Group
Renaissance Real Estate Group
Revolution
Rubenstein Partners
Seaside Institute
SeyferthPR
Signature Properties
Siragusa Group
Smart Growth Leadership Institute
Somerset Development
State of Oregon DOT
Strategic Property Partners
Studer Properties
The Amway Grand
The Chiofaro Company
The Grove, Austin
The Lowell Plan (MA)
The RMR Group
The University of Alabama
Town of Barnstable, MA
Town of Billerica, MA
Town of Brookline, MA
Trazado
Trueform Group
Trust for Sustainable Development
Trust for Sustainable Forestry
Urban Villages
Village of Ada, MI
Village of Babylon, NY
Village of Freeport, NY
Village of Port Chester, NY
West Palm Beach DDA
Wile Interests
Woodbury
i3 Interests
weImpact Group
Our Team
Speck Dempsey is a growing office of urbanists committed to creating walkable places. We are a boutique firm that provides design leadership and often builds multidisciplinary teams tailored to the unique demands of each project. We partner with a carefully curated portfolio of planning, engineering, architecture, landscape, branding, and marketing firms to conscientiously guide our clients from vision to implementation.
Partner
Jeff Speck
Jeff Speck is a city planner who advocates internationally for more walkable cities. As Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts, he led grantmaking in that field and presided over the Mayors' Institute on City Design. Prior to his federal appointment, Mr. Speck spent ten years as Director of Town Planning at DPZ & Co., helping to establish them as the principal firm behind the New Urbanism movement. Since 2007, he has led Speck & Associates—now Speck Dempsey—where his work has focused on making vibrant downtowns. His book Walkable City is the best selling city planning title written this century, and his TED talks have been viewed more than six million times. He lives with his wife, Alice, and sons, Milo and Roman, in a third-floor walkup overlooking the MBTA’s Green Line.
Partner
Chris Dempsey
Chris Dempsey’s career has spanned the public, private, and non-profit sectors. He served as Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, where he co-founded the MassDOT open-data program. Chris has worked as a consultant with Bain & Co., and led North American business development for Masabi, a mobile-ticketing company whose customers include the MBTA, New York MTA, Los Angeles Metrolink, and other large transit agencies. From 2017 to 2021 he led the state’s largest transportation advocacy coalition, Transportation for Massachusetts, working to advance civic conversations on sustainable transportation policy and investments. Chris has represented his hometown, Brookline, as an elected Town Meeting Member since 2012. He lives with his wife, Anna, and daughter, Sarina, and has never owned a car.
Senior Associate
Ben Parker
Ben Parker is an urban designer and architect, licensed in his home state of Texas. He has worked on projects of a wide range of types and scales including cultural, private residential, adaptive reuse, hospitality, and waterfront redevelopment. With extensive experience in China, he is fluent in Mandarin and proficient in classical Chinese. He has taught design at UT San Antonio, Wentworth, and the Harvard School of Design, where he earned a masters in urban design with distinction. He enjoys a walkable lifestyle with his wife, Qingzi, and their daughter, Cordelia.
Associate Planner
Jahnavi Kirtane
Micromobility Lead
David Reed
Jacobs Fellow, 2024
Clara de Castro
Jacobs Fellow, 2024
Sulaya Ranjit
We are planners, urban designers, and policy experts on a mission to design a more walkable world.
OUR TEAM
David Reed
Micromobility Lead
Clara de Castro
Jacobs Fellow, 2024
Sulaya Ranjit
Jacobs Fellow, 2024
Speck Dempsey is a growing office of urbanists committed to creating walkable places. We are a boutique firm that provides design leadership and often builds multidisciplinary teams tailored to the unique demands of each project. We partner with a carefully curated portfolio of planning, engineering, architecture, landscape, branding, and marketing firms to conscientiously guide our clients from vision to implementation.