Christopher Diehl, AIA
Director
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Christopher Diehl was appointed Director of the CUDC in Spring 2007 with a mandate to strengthen the CUDC's role as a vital forum for architecture and design in the NE Ohio region. As Director of Design for URS Cleveland, Diehl has been responsible for several award winning Projects including Tri-C’s Corporate College East, Simmons Hall at
University of Akron and the historic renovation of the Idea Center at Playhouse Square, Cleveland. He is an active, creative force in the Cleveland cultural community where he has authored projects on public art and been a strong voice supporting urban revitalization. Diehl has taught architecture at the Pennsylvania State University, Ohio State University and Miami University. He received his Master’s degree in Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard
University (’88) and a Bachelor’s degree from Miami University.

Sean Burkholder
adjunct assistant professor
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Sean Burkholder has an MLA from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard and a bachelors in architecture from Miami University, and he brings a wide range of technical and theoretical expertise to the UDC staff. He has taught as a visiting professor at Miami and as a teaching assistant at Harvard, and he teaches a seminar in urban design at the CUDC. Sean was also member of the UDC staff before his recent departure for the firm of Westlake Reed Leskosky. Before coming to the UDC, Sean was a project manager for Studio Techne Architects.

Patrick Hyland received his M.Arch from Yale University and returned to Cleveland to work with Westlake, Reed, Leskosky. He is teaches a fifth-year architecture studio in the masters program. The studio reflects his research interests in distinctive, transitional American spatial processes and their contrast to traditional concepts of enclosed or composed urban spatiality.

David Jurca
urban designer
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David Jurca studied at CUDC and received his M.Arch. from Kent State. As a member of the staff, he has been involved in a wide range of projects, and he is particularly interested in the CUDC's Shrinking Cities initative. David is an active volunteer for a number of causes in Cleveland.

Katie McNulty-Taylor
senior secretary
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While she completes her business degree at Kent State, Katie brings her substantial experience with architectural offices to her work at the CUDC.

David Reed, RIBA
project manager
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David received his architectural training at the College of Art in Birmingham, UK and his masters in city planning from Yale. His work as an urban designer and teacher has taken him to a number of schools (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Brookes University-Oxford, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand). His design experience ranges from neighborhood and main street projects in Wisconsin, to major waterfront projects in New Zealand, to the master plan for a major new town in Malaysia. At the CUDC, he has participated extensively in the studio curriculum, while directing UDC public service projects in Cleveland neighborhoods (Lakeshore Boulevard, Garrett Square), Akron (Highland Square), and Youngstown (Wick Park Neighborhood Plan, Youngstown State University Master Plan). He has presented the UDC’s work on urban campuses at the national meeting of the Society for College and University Planning.

Steve Rugare
public programs, adjunct assistant professor
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Steve Rugare is responsible for planning and producing the CUDC’s communications, public events and research activities. He is editor of the CUDC Quarterly and of this web site. As time permits he also contributes to research and graphic design for the UDC’s technical service projects. Steve has been teaching architectural and urban history at the College of Architecture and Environmental Design since 1993, and he is currently responsible for a survey course at the Kent Campus and the graduate seminar “Forces that Shape Cities” at the CUDC. He has also taught at Oberlin College and the University of California at Santa Cruz. He received his bachelors in political philosophy from Michigan State University and an MA from the History of Consciousness Program at UC Santa Cruz. He has presented scholarly work at meetings of the College Art Association, the International Planning History Society and Society for American Regional and City Planning History. Steve is a Greater Cleveland native and now resides in Cleveland’s Edgewater neighborhood.

Maurizio Sabini teaches studio courses in architectural and urban design, as well as seminars in architectural theory. He has written extensively on theoretical issues in twentieth-century architecture, particularly on the work of Louis I. Kahn. He is also the Italian translator of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown's Learning from Las Vegas. As a practitioner, he has been involved in a wide range of projects in Italy, Kenya and Austria. Since coming to Kent State, he has supervised a number of service learning projects through the CUDC, including the Orchard School Playground Conversion and Fairview Park Charrette in Cleveland and charrettes for Poland and Chagrin Falls. Maurizio received his undergraduate degree and doctorate from the Istituto Unversitario di Architettura di Venezia and an M.Arch. from SUNY Buffalo.

Terry Schwarz, AICP
senior planner
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Terry joined the UDC staff in 2001 and has brought her planning expertise and architectural knowledge to a number of major UDC projects, including the master plans for Cleveland’s Cudell-Edgewater and Union-Miles neighborhoods, the Cleveland State University Master Plan and the First Suburbs Housing Initiative. She has led the CUDC's internationally recognized Shrinking Cities initiative. Terry also participates extensively in the graduate studio curriculum at the CUDC. She has presented UDC projects and related research to both regional and international audiences, at conferences of the American Planning Association, the CityFutures conference, and at the ACSP/AESOP conference in Leuven, Belgium. Before coming to the UDC, Terry worked at the Shaker Heights City Planning Department for 10 years, the last two as a Senior Planner. She earned her bachelor’s in English with a minor in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology and received her master’s in city planning from Cornell. Terry grew up in the Chicago area and now lives in Cleveland Heights.

Gauri Torgalkar
urban designer
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Gauri Torgalkar is a native of India who received her her M.Arch. degree from Kent State University in 2003. Her thesis research focused on environments of healing, and her project for permanent, supportive housing for the homeless was developed in conjunction with a network of Cleveland community activists. Gauri first started working at the UDC as a student intern before becoming a full time employee. She has worked on numerous projects, including the CSU Materplan, the Bay Village Revitalization Project and the Broadway Neighborhood Pedestrian/Cyclist Map. Gauri also participates in the CUDC curriculum, teaching a course in graphic techniques for urban design and working with the students in the Cleveland State University "Intro to Urban Design" course. Gauri is also interested in public art projects, and she recently completed designs for banners for Shaker Town Center.

Paul A. Vernon, Architect
urban designer
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Paul Vernon is a registered architect and graduate of Kent. He brings additional resources to the UDC through his completed coursework at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. Since coming to the UDC in 2001, Paul has supervised numerous projects throughout the region, including the Madison Avenue and Detroit Avenue East corridor studies in Cleveland, as well as projects for suburbs and villages such as Richfield and Hubbard. Paul participates in the CUDC studio curriculum as an instructor and critic. Paul has particular expertise in the design of child care facilities and other institutional environments. He will be presenting the CUDC's research on supportive environments for the mentally ill at a national meeting of care providors in Boston in 2008. Paul has diverse experience in the field of community development, serving on multiple design review committees and working with a number of community organizations.