Norman Krumholz, Urban Planner

2007 Lifetime Achievement Award in Design

Norman Krumholz may be 79, but his work is far from over. A professor at Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Urban Affairs, Krumholz served as a planning practitioner in Ithaca, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Cleveland. He then served as Planning Director of the City of Cleveland from 1969 to 1979, under Mayors Carl B. Stokes, Ralph J. Perk and Dennis Kucinich. During that time, his work was noticed and his reputation spread – all the way to the top: President Carter appointed Krumholz as a member of the National Commission on Neighborhoods, whose members traveled around the country and held hearings on neighborhoods’ needs.

Krumholz is also the founder of the Center for Neighborhood Development and is a former member of the board of the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority.

The author of articles in many professional journals, such as the Journal of Urban Affairs and the Journal of the American Planning Association, and a contributor to several books, Krumholz is also the editor, author or co-author of five books, including Making Equity Planning Work, which won the Associated Collegiate Schools of Planning’s Paul Davidoff book of the year award. His most recent book, Revitalizing Urban Neighborhoods (written with CSU’s Dennis Keating), was published in 1999.

He served as the President of the American Planning Association in the late 1980s and received the APA Award for Distinguished Leadership in 1990. Later in the ‘90s he served as the President of the American Institute of Certified Planners and he was awarded the Rome Prize by the American Academy in Rome. He also received the 2001 Homer C. Wadsworth Award as an advocate and practitioner of "equity" urban planning.

The Professor Norman Krumholz Scholarship at the Levin College of Urban Affairs – endowed in honor of his many years of service to CSU – has been established to be awarded to graduate urban planning students who demonstrate an interest in equity planning and/or neighborhood planning.

Krumholz was appointed an American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) fellow, election to which is one of the highest honors that the AICP can bestow on a member. His Cleveland Policy Plan of 1974 has been declared a "Planning Landmark" in American Planning History by the American Institute of Certified Planners for its emphasis on advocacy planning.

And remember the part about his work being far from over? A recent initiative of his is the RTA U-PASS, which allows CSU students to ride Cleveland’s public transportation system for an affordable one-time fee during an entire semester. And current Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has appointed Krumholz to the city's seven-member planning commission.