Approaches to Urban Land Development: From Brownfield Redevelopment to Industrial Competitiveness

Thursday, March 12, 2009
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Videotape of session (.wmv file)

This first half of the session was devoted to reviewing approaches to Brownfield Redevelopment by McBains Cooper, an experienced brownfield redevelopment firm based in the UK.  The session focused on the legal process, agency roles, placemaking and urban design and included four specific case studies.

The second segment focused on MNA's growing Industrial Land Development Business Line.  It reviewed three pieces of sector work exploring options for industrial land development in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.  It highlighted findings and recommendations on industrial land markets, access to industrial land, public-private roles in the provision of infrastructure for industrial/enterprise zone development, and the relationship of these factors to industrial competitiveness and employment.

Chair
Stephen Karam, Sr. Urban Economist, World Bank

Presenters
Zaki Ghiacy, Director of Urban Design & Masterplanning, McBains Cooper, London
Presentation  PDF

Alexandra Ortiz, Sr. Urban Economist, World Bank

Sameh Wahba, Sr. Urban Development Specialist, World Bank
Presentation  PDF

Zaki Ghiacy is Director of Urban Design and Masterplanning at McBains Cooper in London. He has over 30 yeasr years of experience in the fields of Design, Urban Design and Masterplanning. He was educated at the University of London and University of Westminster, London, and has published in several international publications, including World Architecture, Building Design, as well as Estates Gazette and Building. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Royal Institute of British Architects Award, Royal Town Planning Institute Award, Civic Trust Commendation, the Wandsworth Design Award, and the Building Quality Award.

Sameh Naguib Wahba is a Senior Urban Specialist at the Latin America and Caribbean Region’s Sustainable Development Department, The World Bank, where he currently works on housing, urban upgrading and municipal development issues in Brazil. Previously, he worked in the Middle East and North Africa region where he managed several projects and policy advisory activities related to land and housing policy, local economic development, city development strategies, urban planning, municipal management and service delivery, and post-disaster needs assessment and reconstruction. Prior to the Bank, he worked as a housing and urban development specialist at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies IHS (2002-2003) and as a research fellow for the Harvard Center for Urban Development Studies (1996-2002) on projects and advisory services in the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe. He holds a PhD and Masters in urban planning from Harvard University with minors in urban economics and real estate finance and a M.Sc. and B.Sc. in engineering from Cairo University.

Alexandra Ortiz is Sr. Urban Economist in the MNA region, having worked previously in LAC and EAP regions within the Bank. She has worked on a range of different projects, including slum upgrading and municipal development projects, as well as city and regional economic growth projects, and has contributed to and led numerous reports, policy notes and other analytical work. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from Universidad de Los Andes de Colombia, and both Masters and PhD in Urban and Regional Planning/Urban Economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaigne.