Professor Black is one of the faculty's most active practitioners of urban design with emphasis on streetscapes, mixed use buildings and renovation projects in downtown Austin. The partnership he maintains with Andy Vernooy has won many national, state, and local design awards for urban design and architectural projects. As a committee member on the Austin Downtown Alliance, Black proposed a master plan and design of downtown streetscape innovations known as "Great Streets." The project is the highest current priority for the Downtown Alliance. For seven years Professor Black led the School's 4th annual Studio Mexico, a five-week study travel program in Mexico, and participated in the Lugano Program in Europe. Professor Black recently completed the design for large mixed use residential complex in Downtown Austin. Black's area of research interest continues to be the history and theory of Urban Design and True Urbanism.