Andres Andujar Elected to CPA Board of Directors
THREE LEADERS ELECTED TO CITY PARKS ALLIANCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Washington, DC – Three internationally recognized leaders in urban development, landscape architecture, and advocacy were recently elected to the Board of Directors of the national urban park advocacy organization City Parks Alliance (CPA).
New board members are Andres Andujar, CEO, Hemisfair (San Antonio, TX); Claudia Harari, Chief Director & Co-Founder, Harari Landscape Architecture (Monterrey, N.L., Mexico); and Erma Tranter, Retired President, Friends of the Parks (Chicago, IL).
“We are excited to welcome these talented individuals who bring a breadth of experience to the City Parks Alliance Board of Directors, helping guide our organization’s future growth and advocacy for vibrant urban parks,” said CPA Board Co-Chair Ed Uhlir, Executive Director, Millennium Park, Inc., Chicago, IL.
Andres Andujar has participated in the development of numerous properties throughout his career. As a regional executive of a multinational AEC corporation, Andrés led a team of architects, interior designers, master planners, engineers, and project and construction managers, executing projects in dozens of U.S. states, Central and South America, Europe, and in the Middle East. Andrés’ multibillion dollar experience includes large mixed-use, complex, urban developments, and encompasses several markets such as hospitality, residential, retail, education, industrial, healthcare, and aviation for local, state, and federal governments. In addition to his work revitalizing Hemisfair, an underutilized park created out of the 1968 World’s Fair location in San Antonio, he helped develop a vision for River North, an area north of downtown San Antonio surrounding the Museum Reach of the Riverwalk extension, resulting in a 400-acre urban rezoning and the creation of a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone.
Claudia Harari leads the design team at Harari LA, an urban landscape atelier located in Monterrey, N.L., Mexico. The firm’s design work has received ASLA, AIA Biennial, Sociedad de Arquitectos Parsajistas de Mexico (SAPM) Biennial and CANL Biennial awards and honors, including awards of excellence for the landscape design of the Horno 3 Steel Museum in Fundidora Park in Monterrey, on a former brownfield site. Claudia worked as a landscape designer in the offices of Martha Schwartz in Cambridge, MA and Peter Walker in California. Claudia received her Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores in Monterrey and her MLA with urban focus from Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is a member of ASLA and SAPM and is on the alumni council at Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Erma Tranter led the Chicago advocacy group Friends of the Parks for more than three decades. Tranter began working at Friends of the Parks in 1980, around the time that the federal government sued the Chicago Park District for spending an unfair amount of tax dollars in influential white neighborhoods instead of minority communities. Highlights under her leadership include securing a $3 million grant to restore the Garfield Park Conservatory, and the organization’s successful lawsuit against a plan to expand Lake Shore Drive ramps that would have impinged on park land. Erma currently consults on park planning, programming and development to various non-profit and community organizations including Friends of the Parks, the Chicago Rowing and Paddling Association, R.O.W., Privet Park, LLC, Mayan Health Initiative and Chicago State University on the development of public parks, facilities and public policy initiatives. She is a graduate of Wayne State University, Detroit, MI and received her MA, Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
About City Parks Alliance
City Parks Alliance is the only independent, nationwide membership organization solely dedicated to urban parks. It unites and serves a growing network of hundreds of civic and community leaders, government agencies, park and recreation authorities, funders and others. The mission of the City Parks Alliance is to engage, educate and nurture a broad-based constituency to support the creation, revitalization and sustainability of parks and green spaces that contribute to dynamic cities. www.cityparksalliance.org