Plan + Process is a multi-faceted urban design and architecture practice devoted to building local capacity through community-based planning and design, research and education.
Capacity-building for local decision makers
For planning strategies and tools to be effective they must be calibrated to local capacity. Plan + Process works to build local capacity through a variety of trainings and Resources. Principal partners are the Pace Land Use Law Academy and Regional Design Institutes convened by Regional Plan Association.
Urban Design
Plan + Process urban design products include adopted design studies, comprehensive plans, design guidelines and ordinances. Plan + Process is devoted to comprehensive and inclusive processes that empower citizens to actively participate in the planning and design of their communities. Our work is recognized for finding innovative ways to engage stakeholders and build local capacity. Products include design studies, comprehensive plans, design guidelines and ordinances.
Applied Research
Plan + Process design research focuses on contemporary challenges in urbanism. These include rethinking large scale infrastructure such as interstate highway corridors and the role of urban design at the scale of regions and megaregions.
Industrial district design remains a topic of special focus, both for theoretical work and for project- and place-based work.
Plan + Process research projects are supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Sloan Foundation, and the Loeb Fellowship.
Robert Lane, RA
Founding Partner, Plan + Process LLP
Senior Fellow for Urban Design, Regional Plan Association
Rob Lane is the founder and principal of Plan & Process LLP, a multi-faceted urban design and architecture practice devoted to building local capacity through community-based planning and design, research and education. Mr. Lane is also Senior Fellow for Community Design and Development at RPA, which is devoted to combating sprawl and making more beautiful and complete communities. He is responsible for the design content of RPA’s just-released 4th Regional Plan. He co-managed RPA’s participation in the Rebuild by Design Hurricane Sandy recovery initiative.
Mr. Lane is the author of numerous adopted vision plans, zoning ordinances and design guidelines. Research Projects funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts focus on industrial district urban design and development. He is co-author of a book on this subject, The Design of Urban Manufacturing, released by Routledge Press, Spring 2020.
Robert Lane was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design during the ’08-’09 academic year and recently a Fellow at the Design Trust for Public Space in New York for the Made in Midtown initiative to articulate policy and design objectives for the Garment District in New York City.
Robert Lane was an Associate at Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects, PC where he was Project Architect and Project Manager for a number of large, complex architecture and urban design projects. Mr. Lane received his Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University.