joseph seman portfolio
TRANSCRIPT
Urban Planning Design GIS
Joseph Seman PortFoli O
1. Philosophy
4. The South End Improvement Corporation
8. Knox, N.Y.
10. The Seattle Trails Alliance
14. The NYSDEC
2. Curriculum Vitae
16. The NYS Canal Corps
18. Graduate Thesis
20. Climate Action Associates
Contents
/////Urban PlanningDesign
Regional Planning
GIS
Philosophy
Urban Planning and Design are outlets for communities, and by extension, people to envision their
potential and work within their means to realize their goals. My main focus as a planner is to
positively impact communities by helping to make them livable, equitable, and sustainable
through sound planning and collaborative implementation. My goal is to Influence change in
favor of under-represented communities and empower others to become agents of change within
their own communities. Whether through accommodating growth, transforming neighborhoods, or
getting the most out of a once thriving site but now vacant brownfield, I believe in creating plans
and environments that work in favor of those who need it the most.
I value my ability to simplify and visualize this information in a way that makes it accessible to the
community members and stakeholders it impacts most. By doing this I can empower people to use
this information to improve their communities and lives. My education and
professional experience have prepared me to implement change
through planning and design with the understanding that the
contributions I make in an individual project can have
lasting impacts on a community.
Philosophy ////
EDUCATION
The State University of New York at Albany
2013-2015MRP: Urban and Regional Planning
2013-2015Graduate Certificate: Urban Policy
2013-2015Graduate Certificate: GIS and Spatial Analysis
2011-2013BA: Urban Planning and Design
awards
Planning Excellence Award for Outstanding Student Project, 2015The New York Upstate Chapter of the American Planning Association
CONTACT INFORMATION
Joseph Seman6-October-1988
T:518.965.0957 E:[email protected] Addr:1609 N. 46th St, Seattle, WA
SOFTWARE SKILLS
Geospatial
ArcGIS QGIS ERDAS IMAGINE
Architectural
SketchUp
AutoCAD
Revit
Image Processing
Adobe Photoshop Gimp
Adobe Lightroom
Vectoring
Adobe Illustrator
Others
Eclipse
Adobe InDesign
Open Office
Microsoft Office Suite
Curriculum
Vita
e ////
Work Experience
Climate Action Associates LLC, Albany N.Y. 2015
GIS Project Manager (July-November)
Internships
The South End Improvement Corporation 2015
Urban Planning Design Intern (May-September)
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation 2015
Environmental Planning GIS Intern (February-June)
Volunteer Experience
Seattle Parks and Recreation August 2016-
Trails Program Volunteer Coordinator Present
Seattle Trails Alliance August 2016-
Social Media Content Coordinator Designer Present
Town of Knox, N.Y. 2015-2016
Urban Planner (October-February)
Albany County
1220
2 Ar
ea C
ode
The South End
Intern | Disposition Plan
Location: Albany, New York
Project details: The South End Improvement Corporation (SEIC) is a not-for-profit, communitybased housing organization serving the South End of the City of Albany. In 2015 the newly-formed Albany County Land Bank was acquiring a considerable number of properties in the South End without having developed disposition plans for these properties or garnering neighborhood involvement. Our work involved researching vacant and abandoned properties, organizing community meetings to engage and educate the public on the benefits of a whole-block approach to development, and to deliver a unified vision of the future use of theseproperties to the AlbanyCounty Land Bank.
South End Parcels
Albany Housing Authority Properties
Albany County Land Bank Properties
Habitat for Humanity Properties
Underutilized Properties and Properties of Interest
Vacant Properties and Underutilized Parking Lots
HARP Properties South End Parcels
South End Historic District
Schuyler Mansion
Howe Library
Historic District and Buildings of Historic Signi�cance
Land Uses and Community Assets
Library
Schools
Fire Department
Church - Parsonage
Light Industrial District
Neighborhood Commercial District
Multi-Family Medium Density Residential
SEIC ////
Greening Opportunities
Vacant and underutilized lots discourage investment and encourage crime. Therefore, it is absolutely critical to clean up such lots, either through side-lot programs or comunity greening programs that are spearheaded by the Albany County Land Bank. Initiatives like these are tremendous opportunities to create green space throughout the South End, knit together Lincoln Park with the community, and increase the overall quality of life and access to community amenities. Lincoln Park
Pocket Parks
The South End would greatly benefit from the infusion of optimally placed pocket parks throughout the community. Pocket Parks would improve the livability within these areas while also becoming anchors for future investment.
SEIC ////
Location: Knox, New York
Project details:
In 2015 the Town of Knox began the process of reviewing and updating its 1995 Comprehensive Plan. I volunteered with the town to assist in the process and lent my expertise where it was needed. Aspects of my work included updating section 4 of the 1995 Comprehensive Plan, which detailed the socioeconomic demographics and housing characteristics of the town, and illustrating key statistics by recreating and updating maps, graphs, and charts from the 1995 Comprehensive Plan.
Volunteer | Comprehensive Plan Update
10 min.
5 min.
10 min.
13 min.
7 min.
13 min.
11 min.
7 min.
0 min.
Legend
Convenient Store Without Gas
Convenient Store With Gas
Post Office
Convenient Store Without Gas 2 Mile Bu�er
Convenient Store With Gas 2 Mile Buffer
Post Office 2 Mile Buffer
Location
of
Barns
and Outbuildings
Driving Distance to Local Amenities
Knox, NY ////
Location: Seattle, Washington
Project details:
Upon arriving in Seattle, I wanted to learn more about my surroundings and familiarize myself more with the city. In order to achieve this goal Icontacted the coordinator of the Seattle Trails Program to lend my services in whatever capacity they needed. Since then I have taken the lead on volunteer outreach, event coordination, updating trails documentation, and even testing mobile applications. Through volunteering with the Trails Program I have also taken up work with the Seattle Trails Alliance, which is a not-for-profit board that represents the interests of walkers, hikers, commuters, foresters, pedestrians,runners, and neighbors who support trails in Seattle.
Typical TrailSelection withPlant Association
DRAFT
Seattle Parks and Recreation Trail Construction and Maintenance Standards
Volunteer | A Little Bit Of Everything
Social Media and Brand Marketing
The Seattle Trails Program operates and maintains over 100 miles of soft surface trails throughout Seattle. With a staff of only two the program heavily relies on volunteers to maintain the trail system. My focus has been to coordinate existing volunteers and to enhance the Seattle Trails social media presence in order to build a stronger volunteer network.
Seattle
Trails
////
Work Hand-In-Hand With Volunteers
The Seattle Trails App
The Seattle Trails app came together as a result of the 2016 AT&T and Seattle IT Department Hackathon. The app allows users to view trails throughout Seattle which are color coded by steepness, obtain driving locations to desired trails, and report issues with trail conditions. I have worked on the graphics for the app as well as testing the beta version for Android.
Seattle
Trails
////
0 < 0.5 Percent
0.5 < 2 Percent
2 < 10 Percent
10 Percent or Greater
Fresh Water Streams and Rivers Percent Impervious Surface
by Catchment
Legend
Location: Albany, New York
Project details: The Habitat Restoration Section within the NYSDEC's Division of Fish, Wildlife, and Marine Resources was in the formative stages of initiating a statewide, coordinated habitat restoration program. Due to limited funding and staff time, the program was designed to be delivered in a landscape context to provide the greatest benefit for the least cost and effort. My work included conducting landscape-scale aquatic and terrestrial habitat condition assessments, updating and recreating maps from the Nature Conservancy that depicted current habitat assessment indicators for New York State, integrating GIS and remote sensing tools into the program's activities, and to resesarch and present a concise overview of existing state and national assessment methods, including applicable tools for assessing habitat condition in New York State.
Intern | Habitat Restoration Analysis
Fresh Water Streams and RiversRisk of Flow Alteration from Dam Water Storage
2 < 10 Percent Low RIsk
10 < 30 Percent Moderate Risk
30 Percent and Greater High Risk
NYS DEC ////
Location: Albany, New York
Project details:
The 2014 UAlbany Fall Planning Studio worked with the New York State Canal Corporation as they launched the planning process to update the New York State Canal Recreationway Plan. Aspects of work included reviewing what has been accomplished to date, developing and implementing the public input process and stakeholder engagement workshops, recordation and analysis of themes and topics that emerged from thepublic input process, and translating these themes and topics into recommended goals, objectives, and strategies for the plan. The studio members were awarded with the 2015 Planning Excellence Award for Outstanding Student Project by the New York State Upstate Chapter of the American Planning Association.
Planning Studio | Opportunity Analysis
Greene County
East
Durham
NYS Canal Corps ////
Greene County
East
Durham
Graduate Thesis | Linking Rural Brownfields to Community Revitalization
Location: Greene County, New York
Project details:
This paper explored the feasibility of using an area-wide brownfield remediation approach that utilized both land trusts and a land bank. Rather than addressing these sites individually, an area-wide approach provided an opportunity to systematically consider the challenges related to multiple brownfields andincorporate site-specific assessment and cleanup into larger community revitalization efforts. Greene County, New York was used in this paper as a case example of an aging rural industrial economy that is auto-dependent and highly decentralized with high vacancy rates and concern over community disinvestment. The results of this paper showed that an area-wide approach that utilizes a land bank/land trust partnership with oversight and coordination provided by Greene County would greatly benefit the community by addressing vacant, underutilized, delinquent, and/or contaminated properties from their initial identification through the final uses.
Gradua
te Thesis
////
CLIMATE ACTION ASSOCIATES LLC
GIS Project Manager | Web Application
Location: Albany, New York
Project details:
Climate Action Associates LLC is a software technology and sustainability consulting firm dedicated to bringing the power of advanced technology to bear on practical on-the-ground sustainability challenges. Climate Action Associates are currently developing a Utility Energy Registry (UER) which will function as a publishing platform designed to help U.S. electric and gas utility companies provide energy performance metrics to communities in a structured way. I was tasked with developing and maintaining the UER's geodatabase, implementing quality assurance procedures for the geodatabase and crowd sourced utility data, and performing analytics on the utility data to ensure that aggregated community consumption totals were in line with the New York State Public Service Commission's consumer privacy standards.
In 2016 NYSERDA championed the UER as a flagship program for NYS and was awarded $453,067 from the U.S. Department of Energy in order to create a replicable and nationally scalable model.
The UER allows users to access gas and electric utility data at the state, county, zip code, and community levels. Data can also be arranged by month and year which allows for energy monitoring over time.
CAA ////
DATA
Initially the data was collected from each utility company in New York State. Going forward data will be uploaded on a monthly basis by utilities and will automatically populate the UER, giving up-to-date and timely information.
Schenectady
County
Albany Cou
nty
Rensselaer County
Saratoga
County 9.1%
5.0%
0.7%2.3%
% INCREASE IN PV INSTALLATIONS FROM 2014 TO 2015
Solarize NY
While with Climate Action Associates I also worked on the Solarize NY campaign which was a state-wide effort led by NYSERDA to improve the efficiency, affordability, and reliability of energy systems in New York State at the local level. I worked closely with the Saratoga, Schenectady, Rensselaer, and Albany chapters of Solarize NY to identify and map key indicators for their campaigns.
CAA ////
Schenectady
County
Albany Cou
nty
Rensselaer County
Saratoga
County 9.1%
5.0%
0.7%2.3%
% INCREASE IN PV INSTALLATIONS FROM 2014 TO 2015
Thank you for taking the time to review my portfolio. If you have any
questions, or would like to discuss any piece of what I presented here further, please do not hesitate to contact me.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Joseph Seman
T:518.965.0957 E:[email protected] Addr:1609 N. 46th St, Seattle, WA