James Sipes

Jim Sipes is an award-winning urban designer, environmental planner, landscape architect, and writer with more than 30 years of experience encompassing a wide range of planning, design, research, and communication projects. His work includes environmental planning and design, land use planning, watershed management, low impact development, park and recreation design, urban design, natural and cultural resource management, and community based design. His design solutions focus on taking an integrated approach to water resources and green infrastructure.

Jim has received national recognition for his writing, having written more than 350 articles for a variety of publications and receiving the prestigious Bradford Williams Medal award for outstanding writing. He has published "Digital Land" (John Wiley & Sons, 2007), "Integrating BIM Technology into Landscape Architecture, V. 2" (LATIS, 2014), "Sustainable Solutions to Water Resources – Process, Planning, Design & Implementation Strategies" (John Wiley & Sons, 2010), "Creating Green Roadways" (Island Press, 2012), "The Bayous of Houston" (Arcadia Publishing, 2013), and "International Water Resources" (John Wiley & Sons in Chinese, 2013).

Jim has also been recognized as Outstanding Alumni at Iowa State University, and has received numerous planning, design, and communication awards over the years. He has worked with PBS on a variety of projects, including television documentaries that focus on environmental issues, water resources, and the conflicts between development and natural systems.

Jim received a Bachelor’s Degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Kentucky and a Masters of Landscape Architecture from Iowa State University. Jim has taught site design, environmental planning, and resource management at the university level for 12 years. He currently teaches cultural landscapes at Georgia State University and geospatial design at Penn State University.

Jim also was worked with some of the most respected design and planning firms in the world, including EDAW (acquired by AECOM), where he was an associate principal, and Jones + Jones, where he led all environmental planning efforts.