Last week urban designer Evan Rose died at the age of 50. He leaves behind an important body of work that will continue to influence cities and the people who plan them.
Evan had a love of people. For those of us lucky enough to know him, we felt an incredible optimism in the way he looked at the world. For Evan, it wasn’t just that the glass was half full — it was as if the half empty part of the glass represented an even more fascinating aspect of life to be discovered.
His love of people gave him a gift. Without ego or assumptions, Evan could observe, listen, build upon and articulate urban visions in a way that made everyone around the table say, “Exactly.” He didn’t look to the page for design inspiration; he looked all around him and combined incredibly complex inputs into simple visual concepts that turned into some of San Francisco’s greatest plans and places.
In 2007, Evan was diagnosed with a rare form of sarcoma. The doctors told him he only had a few years to live. Evan turned those few years into eight busy, joyous, productive years: He was married and had a son, he started a solo practice, Urban Design Plus, and then co-founded the San Francisco-based SITELAB urban studio. As professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania, he taught studios on the public realm and Brazil.
Even in his approach to his health, Evan was creative and uncompromising. Under the care of Memorial Sloan Kettering, he participated in ground-breaking experimental treatments and raised money for rare cancer research to help others facing the uncertain path of lesser-known cancers. Marilyn Taylor, Dean of U Penn’s School of Design and a former SOM partner, wrote, “Evan was brilliant as an urbanist and catalytic as a teacher. His students shared his aspirations. Ever buoyant, he made us believers that he would, once again, be back.”
Evan died on July 13, 2015, but his work survives him. His sketches and words put to paper what we love in our city.
After earning his Master in Architecture at UC Berkeley, Evan started his career at the San Francisco Planning Department, writing the award-winning San Francisco Waterfront Urban Design and Access Plan, as well as initiating and implementing San Francisco's acclaimed Downtown Streetscape Plan.
As principal at SMWM for nearly 10 years, Evan led the firm’s urban design practice alongside Karen Alschuler. This work earned SMWM’s successor firm, Perkins+Will, the APA’s 2015 National Planning Excellence Award for a Planning Firm. He led a wide range of distinguished and challenging commissions, across the United States and internationally, with a focus on urban waterfronts. His projects include the Yards in Washington, D.C., honored with the 2013 ULI Open Space Award; the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative and Poplar Point Plans also in D.C.; the Sayreville Waterfront Redevelopment; the Brooklyn Piers Plan; the Boston Central Artery Master Plan; the Willamette River Concept Plan; the Mission Bay Plan; the Port of Los Angeles Framework Plan; the St. Louis Downtown and Riverfront Plan; the new town of Southfield, Massachusetts; and the BI Village Greenville and Kamenskoe Plato projects in Kazakhstan.
After working for a few years on his own, Evan co-founded, with Laura Crescimano, a studio that reflected his strong belief that urban design goes way beyond technical and architectural study. Rather it starts with communities, people, economies and context — out of which urban design grows. He has left behind a practice that holds this principle at its core. San Francisco’s Pier 70 project, currently weaving its way through the entitlements process, is indelibly shaped by Evan’s sensitivity to how people experience places, as well as his deeply collaborative approach.
Evan was also a teacher. Not just in his role as Professor at University of Pennsylvania, but in life. Even in the way he handled his multi-year struggle with cancer, never letting his struggles diminish his enthusiasm. A Newsweek reporter once asked if he ever felt like giving up. He responded, “Why would I do that? We have an amazing son. I have a great life. It’s full.”
Evan had a gift; and that gift came just as much from his heart as it did from his mind. ˙As we tackle the incredible urban challenges that face us, perhaps we can all aspire to tap into the type of intelligence and optimism that went into Evan’s work. We honor what he gave us, which will live far beyond any of us. He has left this world inspired by his presence, and for that we thank him.
SPUR will host a remembrance of Evan Rose and his work at 6 p.m., Friday, September 25. Details will be available soon on our events calendar.
In lieu of flowers, Evan’s family has asked that donations be made to Team Evan at Cycle for Survival, the national movement to beat rare cancers. Donations to Cycle for Survival are directly allocated to research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and have already led to new and better treatments for cancer patients.