Robert Yaro: Toward a Preservation Strategy for the Texas Hill Country
Bob Yaro is currently the Potter Rose Visiting Professor of Planning at The University of Texas at Austin. Since 2002, he has been Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design.
From 1990-2014, Yaro was Executive Director and then President and CEO of the Regional Plan Association (RPA) in New York, America's oldest metropolitan policy group. In 2014, Yaro retired after 25 years in leadership positions at RPA. He currently serves as RPA president emeritus and senior advisor.
Yaro's work and influence goes far beyond the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region. He established America 2050, RPA's examination of long-range infrastructure demands in the U.S. He is a thought leader in large-scale planning for megaregions, identifying the interdependence of large regional areas on infrastructure and natural resources. In 2012, Yaro established the Global Lab, a joint venture with the World Bank, to improve planning in emerging global cities.
At The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, Yaro teaches a practicum for community and regional planning students on the Texas Hill Country—the extraordinary natural and scenic area abutting Austin, San Antonio, and the I-35 Corridor. The studio investigates how current and future development patterns will affect the region's ground and surface water supplies, wildlife habitat, and natural and scenic resources.
An internationally recognized leader in urban and regional planning, Mr. Yaro brings considerable expertise and experience in advocacy and public policy for transportation, economic development, and environmental sustainability to the Hill Country studio. He has had more than four decades of experience in planning for metropolitan regions and large landscapes in New York, New England, and around the world. He is an honorary lifetime member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Yaro was educated at Harvard and Wesleyan Universities and resides in Guilford, Connecticut.