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Galina Tahchieva

Speech Topics:
New Urbanism and Suburban Retrofits: Theory & Practice
The Case for Resort Towns: Utopias or Urban Laboratories
New Urbanism Role in Sustainable Communities
Retrofitting Malls and Office Parks into Neighborhoods
Affordable Urbanism and Successful Redevelopment
Advanced Techniques in Urban Design
Gulf Coast Rebuilding
New Urbanism in Europe

Galina Tahchieva is director of town planning for Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company, Architects and Town Planners (DPZ). DPZ, a leader in the New Urbanism, the movement to end suburban sprawl and urban disinvestment, has completed designs for more than 300 new towns, regional plans, and community revitalization projects on five continents on sites ranging from 10 acres to more than 500,000 acres.

Tahchieva speaks nationally on suburban retrofits, the New Urbanism, advanced techniques in urban design, affordable urbanism, redevelopment, Gulf Coast rebuilding, and the New Urbanism in Europe. She shares with audiences case studies and successful techniques for implementing traditional urban design, whether for regional plans, downtown master plans, academic campus villages, resorts or new towns in Europe. The topic of retrofitting suburbia is of special interest to Tahchieva, who has been working on a number of projects that transform sprawl into sustainable communities. She speaks to the urgency and the relevance of such efforts.

Tahchieva is an expert on how to successfully implement urban development in a range of environments, from downtowns to suburban retrofits and resorts. With more than 15 years experience in design and implementation around the world, she can share proven strategies for success. Tahchieva has led and managed scores of DPZ projects nationally and internationally including West Palm Beach, Baton Rouge, Providence, Riverside by Post, Mashpee Commons, Sarasota, Fort Myers, Northwest Hillsborough County, Alys Beach, and others. She has also led projects in Europe, managing the design of new towns in Scotland, Spain, the Bahamas, and introducing New Urbanist ideas to Eastern Europe through work on a new town in Bulgaria.

Tahchieva has contributed to a number of publications including The New Civic Art, Architecture and the City International, The Charrette Handbook, and the forthcoming series Advanced Techniques in Urban Design. She joined DPZ as a project manager in 1993 after receiving master's degree in urban planning from the University of Miami, Florida. Ms. Tahchieva has served as a lecturer at the University of Miami School of Architecture, the Harvard University Executive Education Program, the Federal University of Rio De Janeiro, and the University of Ferrara.

Tahchieva also holds a master's degree in architecture from the University of Architecture and Civil Engineering in Sofia, Bulgaria. She has been serving as director of the DPZ Miami office since 1998. Tahchieva is a member of the Congress for the New Urbanism, a founding member of the Congress for European Urbanism, a member of the Institute of Classical Architecture and has been certified as a LEED-accredited professional. Travels from Miami.

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