Baye Adofo-Wilson, Esq., AICP

Adofo-Wilson is a planner, developer and lawyer expert in urban mixed-income, mixed-use developments. He is a decorated Army veteran and Loeb Fellow and he has served as Deputy Mayor for Economic and Housing Development for Newark, N.J., as well as Urban Design Critic at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He leads strategies reimagining low-income communities using sustainability, culture and real estate. His real estate development and consulting firm, BAW Development LLC, focuses on developing transformative, residential and mixed-use projects in urban communities including, in partnership with RPM Development, a major project at Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, N.J., a historic Negro Legue baseball Stadium. In Newark, Adofo-Wilson managed the development of two significant parks: Mulberry Commons in the city’s downtown and the three-mile-long Riverfront Park along the Passaic River. Before Harvard, he cofounded the Lincoln Park/Coast Cultural District, an organization redeveloping Newark’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Victor Body-Lawson, FAIA

Body-Lawson is a Nigerian-born architect, educator and artist based in New York City. In 1993 he founded Body Lawson Associates Architects and Planners (www.blarch.com), an acclaimed architecture, interiors and urban design practice operating in the United States and globally. Recognized for responsive, collaborative community solutions as well as its unique design signature, Body Lawson Associates (BLA) is known for its ability to “empower people in under-resourced communities through their public spaces and buildings.” Leading the certified MBE, Mr. Body-Lawson is a Fellow and active member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and member of the National Organization of Minority Architects. He is associate professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School  of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Last year, Body-Lawson was recognized as a leader in housing by the AIA New York Chapter.

About the Event

Title: “Equitable Mixed-Use Reinventions: Energizing Urban Sites”

Host: AIA New York State

Format: Virtual program

Register: https://web.cvent.com/event/93437d4a-e2d8-4019-b39f-83a47bbe41a2/summary

Panel: Victor Body-Lawson, FAIA, NOMA

Baye Adofo-Wilson, Esq., AICP

When: Tuesday, May 10, 11:30am – 1pm ET

Press: Register through C.C. Sullivan, 914-462-2096

About the Program

With a focus on equity, inclusion and community leadership, the panelists present two large-scale, mixed-use urban redevelopment case studies. Attendees will learn how project teams create inclusive and equitable mixes of uses for urban sites in concert with multilingual, diverse Black and brown communities. Takeaways include how project approvals and entitlements are gained, as well as how designs incorporate new ideas in mixed-use affordable communities such as job-creating commercial uses, parklike open spaces, and daycare and healthcare offerings. One case study in Paterson, N.J. incorporates a museum and historic baseball park: the historic Hinchcliffe Stadium reinvention, centered on a national historic landmark Negro League baseball park. The second is a metro-area juvenile detention campus converted into vibrant commercial uses and 740 units of 100% low-income housing with green public spaces, called la Peninsula. More than mere economic uplift, these affordable communities reinvent and energize the urban core, demonstrating synergies with creative mixes of commercial uses, destinations and recreation, open space, and employment and economic opportunities.