Navigation
| Position | Lecturer |
|---|---|
| Phone | 805.756.5083 |
| Fax | 805.756.2270 |
| ktopping@calpoly.edu | |
| Office | 186-300A |
| Office Hours | |
| Web Site |
Education
No information available.
Areas of Interest
Recently, Mr. Topping has been speaking and writing on the linkage between CO2 emissions and what planners can do through smart design and mitigation planning to reduce long-term impacts of global warming and climate change (“Hot Topic” Planning Magazine August/September 2006 issue; Viewpoint, May 2005 issue). He has been directly involved with emerging post-Katrina sustainability issues, having participated on a four-member nationwide panel invited by the Rockefeller foundation and Greater New Orleans Foundation to screen and interview planning firms selected to undertake recovery planning in New Orleans. Major speaking engagements on sustainability issues have included New Orleans, May 2006; San Antonio, April 2006; UCLA, April and January 2006; Tokyo, March 2006; Manila, March 2006; Stanford University, February 2006; USC, October 2005; Shreveport, Louisiana, October 2005; and Monterey, California, June 2005.Planning Experience
Ken Topping, is a president of Topping Associates International, a city planning firm, and lecturer at the City and Regional Planning Department, College of Architecture and Environmental Design, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Mr. Topping is former director of city planning for the City of Los Angeles (1986-1990). Subsequent roles have included: principal, Topping Jaquess Consultants (1991-1997); general manager, Cambria Community Services District, California (1997-2001); and visiting professor, Center for Research in Disaster Reduction Systems, Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan (2002-2004). As Los Angeles City planning director, Mr. Topping played an influential role in guiding completion of a variety of significant community and specific plans.Also while with the city he was involved with rerouting the Metro Rail subway Red Line between Union Station and Universal City, directed rezoning of the city using GIS, laid the preliminary groundwork for preparation of the General Plan Framework—a major revision general plan revision completed in 1996—guided the Los Angeles Design Action Planning Team (LADAPT) program leading to recent acquisition of a 40-acre park in the China Town district by the Trust for Public Land, and coordinated preparation of the pre-event Recovery and Reconstruction Plan used to help guide recovery after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake.
Publications
Mr. Topping is internationally recognized for leadership in integrating sustainability issues such as climate change and disaster mitigation into city planning. Born in Kobe, Japan, he has undertaken disaster mitigation and recovery advisory work in Australia, China, Korea, the Philippines, and Taiwan.He is co-author with James Schwab and others of Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction, PAS Report 483/484, published by FEMA and the American Planning Association (APA), December 1998. Co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation research project comparing post-earthquake redevelopment after the Northridge (1994) and Hanshin-Awaji (1995) earthquakes (book in progress), he is also writing a book on disaster mitigation and recovery planning in California for Solano Press Books.
Memberships
No information available.
Other
No information available.