Newman Named OHSU Planning, Development Director

Brian Newman, a Metro Councilor and a deeply experienced urban planner, has been named director of campus planning and development for Oregon Health & Science University, effective Monday, Oct. 1.

 

Newman will assist in achieving the university’s strategic goals through overall management of planning and development for both short- and long-term OHSU projects, the most notable of which is the future Schnitzer Campus in Portland’s South Waterfront. He will work under the direction of Mark Williams, OHSU associate vice president for campus planning, development and real estate, and other OHSU executives.

His responsibilities will include managing master planning, land use regulatory planning and implementation of the Marquam Hill Plan; relations with federal, state, regional and local governments and regulatory authorities concerning planning policies and projects; space planning and allocation; collaboration on real estate and development projects, including property acquisition and disposition, land development and property leasing; and budgeting and personnel management for the campus planning, leased property management and space planning units.

“OHSU is fortunate,” said Williams, “that a man with Brian Newman’s breadth of experience will be applying his insights and skills to the challenges the university faces in the years ahead as we move forward with planning for the Schnitzer Campus, continued development of our property in the South Waterfront central district and reconfiguring and upgrading the university’s campus on Marquam Hill.” 

Newman, 36, has more than 12 years of experience in local and regional planning, both as a practitioner and a public policymaker.

He is currently a senior planner in the Portland office of Parsons Brinckerhoff, a global planning, engineering and construction management firm, where he has managed station-area planning in transit-oriented development projects. His recent projects have included master planning for three new stations along the new Austin, Texas, Capital MetroRail commuter line and advising Miami-Dade Transit in Florida on selection of a master developer for several sites along the transit agency’s planned North Corridor Metrorail extension.

“OHSU is a dynamic institution and a regional asset,” said Newman. “I look forward to helping the university shape its future on Marquam Hill and the new Schnitzer Campus at South Waterfront. It’s an opportunity for me to continue from a different platform and on a different scale to do the kind of work I have been doing, and of helping to manage the growth of a major regional institution.”

Newman was first elected to the Metro Council in 2002 and was re-elected in 2006. Prior to that, he served on the Milwaukie City Council for two years.

Promoting green development practices in sensitive habitat areas and developing strategies to fund costly infrastructure in communities recently brought within the urban growth boundary have been among his chief legislative priorities on the Metro Council. He is one of three Metro Councilors who sit on the Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation, which is made up of elected officials from the entire Portland metro area who evaluate the region’s transportation needs and make recommendations. He also chairs Metro’s South Corridor Transportation Alternatives Study Policy Group, which has reviewed proposed light-rail routes between downtown Portland and Milwaukie.

 

During his tenure on the Milwaukie City Council Newman worked with community leaders to revitalize downtown Milwaukie, pushed for transit improvements in Clackamas County and advocated for additional funding for parks, open space and recreation trails. His professional experience also includes stints as a senior project manager for the Congress for the New Urbanism in San Francisco where he advanced strategies for curbing suburban sprawl and revitalizing urban centers.

As a citizen activist Newman has served as president of the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition, co-chair of the Clackamas County chapter of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters and as a board member of the Coalition for a Livable Future. In 2002, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance honored him with a statewide award for leading the effort to complete the Springwater Corridor Trail.

Newman holds a bachelor’s degree from Willamette University and a master’s degree in city and regional planning from the University of California at Berkeley. He was named a national Truman Scholar in 1994 and a Marshall Memorial Fellow in 2004. He, his wife Jennifer and their daughter Amelia live in Lake Oswego.

 

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