Vicente del Rio is an architect with a graduate diploma in Urban and Regional Planning (State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), a Master’s in Urban Design (Oxford Polytechnic), and a Ph.D. in Architecture and Urbanism (University of São Paulo, Brazil). Since September 2001, he teaches in the City and Regional Planning Department, California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo, where he is a full professor. From 1979 to 2001 he taught at the school of of Architecture and Urbanism, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where he was a full professor and served as vice-director and graduate coordinator. He was visiting professor and has lectured in several occasions in universities in the US, England, Portugal, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. He was a Senior International Fellow at Johns Hopkins University (1984) and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Urban Design, University of Cincinnati (1992/3). From 2005-2008 he has been a visiting professor at the masters program in urbanism, Universidade Lusofona in Lisbon, Portugal. Vicente has a long professional experience in physical planning and urban design. From 1979 to 1985 he worked at Rio de Janeiro’s State Foundation for Metropolitan Planning, and in 1986 he worked at the Secretaria de Urbanismo, city of Rio de Janeiro. From August to December 1984, as a visiting urban designer at the City of Baltimore he was responsible for the urban design revitalization project for Fells Point Waterfront. He left his public job in 1986 to dedicate full time to teaching and private consultancy. He was an associate and/or consultant to various urban design projects in firms in Brazil --such as Coutinho-Diegues-Cordeiro, and Mayerhofer & Toledo, both in Rio de Janeiro. Some of these projects were developed in conjunction with The SWA Group in the U.S. Some projects he has participated in are: Lagoa dos Ingleses New Community ( 3,500 hectares, Nova Lima), Jacuhi and Sarue new communities (400 and 350 hectares, Serra, Brazil), Cidade Alta new community (400 hectares, Juiz de Fora), a development plan and conceptual design for an eco-tourism costal resort (1,000 hectares, Paraty), the Environmental Management Master Plan for the Watershed Area of the Sepetiba Bay (Rio de Janeiro State), and the Rio Cidade urban design plans for Méier, Avenida Suburbana, and Largo do Bicao (Rio de Janeiro). Since he moved to the US in 2001 he has developed the Grover Beach Façade Enhancement Plan and the Traver Participatory Concept Plan through Cal Poly’s Foundation. He is an allied professional to R2L, San Luis Obispo. Vicente has received various awards for this work and publications in Brazil and in the U.S. He has published more than fifty titles in Brazil and abroad. He authored five books in Portuguese, including the best seller and award winner Introduction to Urban Design in the Planning Process. His first book in the English language, Contemporary Urbanism in Brazil: Beyond Brasilia, is scheduled to be published by the University Press of Florida in Fall 2008.
Articles
Designing a Residential Resort in Mexico: Third-Year Community Design Lab, Summer 2007, Focus: Journal of the City and Regional Planning Department (2008)
In the summer of 2007, a third-year design class was challenged by a real project...
Traver Concept Plan: A Participatory Process (with Umut Toker), Focus: Journal of the City and Regional Planning Department (2007)
In the summer of 2006, faculty Vicente del Rio and Umut Toker developed a series...
Park Marina Area Concept Plan: Riverfront Revitalization in Redding, CA (with Sean Nicholas), Focus: Journal of the City and Regional Planning Department (2006)
Through a community outreach effort and in a true learn-by-doing fashion, in winter 2005 CRP´s...
Beyond Brasilia - Contemporary Urban Design in Brazil, Proceedings of the 41st ISOCARP Congress: Bilbao, Spain (2005)
This paper is a brief discussion of a recent research on how Brazilian cities have...
Other
Urban Design Projects, City and Regional Planning Faculty Scholarship (2005)
Photographs and drawings of urban design projects of Vicente del Rio:
Fells Point Waterfront...