Departmental Faculty

Ronald Kasprisin, MUP, AIA, APA
Professor, Urban Design and Planning

Biography

I am an architect and urban planner with teaching and professional experience nationally (Cleveland, NY, Boston and Minneapolis) and throughout the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia and Alaska, since 1968. I specialize in downtown and waterfront redevelopment, housing in-fill and master planned communities with an emphasis on urban design, design guidelines, public involvement processes, and implementation. I am known for my work with small towns and rural areas regarding ways to reduce growth impacts and develop hybrid development patterns that protect open space. I am also respected for my public involvement processes, ranging from design charrettes or intensives to public outreach programs in community-based planning. I am a principal in Kasprisin Pettinari Design, Langley, WA and Portland, OR, with Professor James Pettinari, former Director of the Urban Architecture Program in Portland, University of Oregon. We have received numerous national and regional awards for our urban design projects, including awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Institute of Planners, Planning Association of Washington, National Hazard Mitigation Program and the Washington State Trust for Historic Preservation. I am also a nationally recognized watercolorist with works being accepted by the Salmagundi Club NY, Northwest Watercolor Society Seattle, Western Colorado Watercolor Society Colorado Springs, CO, Wyoming Watercolor Society, St. Louis Artists’ Guild, East Side Association of Fine Arts Bellevue, WA, Barns and Farms Kawaunee, WI, Peninsula Art League and others. Along with faculty member Robert Freitag, I led a series of community design charrettes for Washington coastal communities for Tsunami Vertical Evacuation Structures (Safe Havens) and their urban design impacts on those community forms. When budget permits, I also teach watercolor in architecture at the university and conduct workshops at Kasprisin Studios in Langley, Washington, on Whidbey Island. I am currently working on a new book involving play and creativity in urban design and planning based on the work of Fredriche Froebel, the inventor of ‘kindergarten.'

Courses

• URBDP 503 Communication and Analysis
• URBDP 508 Specialized Planning Laboratory
• URBDP 598 Urban Design Composition
• URBDP 598 Urban Design Studio Prep

Selected Publications

Kasprisin, R.J. Urban Design: The Composition of Complexity, Routledge Press UK, 2011.

Kasprisin, R.J. Design Media, John Wiley & Sons, NY, 1999.

Kasprisin, R.J. Visual Thinking for Architects and Designers, John Wiley & Sons, NY, 1995.

Kasprisin, R.J. (Co-author). Designing Your Town: A Small Town Primer, AIA/Georgia Power Press, 1994.

Kasprisin, R.J. Watercolor in Architectural Design, Van Nostrand Reinhold, NY, 1989.