Composition and Terms
and at least one and no more than two from the following categories:
plus
Recruitment Commissioners are appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by City Council. Terms are two years and may be renewed once. For inquiries about openings, contact Tom Iurino (tom.iurino@seattle.gov). See a list of former commissioners. Commissioners Julie Bassuk | ||
 |  | Julie Bassuk, AICP is a partner at MAKERS architecture & urban design. She specializes in land use, neighborhood and facility planning for Port Districts, Cities and Federal Agencies. Julie enjoys helping organizations and communities envision and realize their goals. Whether it's accommodating growth, transforming neighborhoods or getting the most out of our waterfronts, she believes in creating quality environments that enhance communities. Julie is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and University of Washington's Real Estate Certificate program. |
Julie Parrett | ||
 | | Julie Parrett is a registered Landscape Architect with over 15 years of experience designing, planning and developing urban parks and open spaces. Recently, as Design Director for the People's Waterfront Coalition, an organization she helped co-found, Julie’s work focused on re-envisioning Seattle's downtown waterfront without the Viaduct. Julie has worked on both regionally significant and local neighborhood projects within Seattle including the Olympic Sculpture Park and Mineral Springs Park, while employed as a Principal with Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture. In addition to professional practice, Julie teaches design studios at the Landscape Architecture Department at the University of Washington in Seattle and previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Julie graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Architecture and earned a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. |
Tom Nelson | ||
 | | Thomas Nelson AIA, LEED® BD+C is a principal at Mithun. With over 25 years of experience as an architect designing major commercial and institutional projects his focus is on civic and higher education. He led the design of the recently completed Puyallup City Hall which has received LEED® Gold Certification. He’s a nationally recognized expert on sustainable design and has completed numerous LEED® Certified projects. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Science from Kent State University. |
Seth Geiser | ||
 | | Seth Geiser is a freelance urban designer. He worked for Seattle Department of Planning and Development for 3+ years on a wide range of planning initiatives, including: people-oriented streetscape design, family-friendly urban neighborhoods, neighborhood framework plans, design charettes, and street food. He is a firm believer that the design process can be used to enliven neighborhoods, foster community collaboration, and enrich daily life. Seth graduated from the University of Washington with concurrent Master's degrees in Urban Planning and Design and Public Administration.
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Laurel Kunkler | ||
 | | Lolly Kunkler is a licensed civil engineer who focuses on low impact development and sustainable infrastructure. She has been involved in the planning, design, and construction administration of sustainable and low impact development projects on a variety of scales, including the Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel, the High Point Redevelopment, and The Neighborhood House Community Center. Lolly pursued engineering because she wanted to have a positive influence on the built environment. She currently works at SvR Design, an integrated services firm focused on low impact development, parks, housing, site development, and pedestrian, street, and trail projects. |
Martin Regge | ||
 | | Martin Regge, AICP is a Design Principal at NBBJ. Martin is an urban designer, business development and planning practice leader with more than 25 years of professional experience. He’s involved in all of NBBJ’s project types including civic, corporate, commercial, science/education and health care bringing an urban designer’s perspective of framework thinking and systems integration from initial conceptual design through project completion. His recent experience includes corporate and institutional master planning and contributes regularly on international urban design projects and design competitions through Asia. Martin is a graduate of Arizona State University College of Architecture and Environmental Design. |
Shannon Loew | ||
 | | Shannon Loew is the founder of Form In Context (a.k.a. FIX), a small real estate development company focused on urban infill projects that stimulate community through shared values of innovation and creativity. FIX is the culmination of Shannon's on-going pursuit to create great places with inspiring, relevant design. Shannon is an associate member of the AIA, LEED certified and holds a Master of Architecture from the Harvard School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts in environmental architecture from Vassar College. He has worked with some of the largest real estate developers in the country, prize winning architects in the US and Europe and at IDEO where he designed on a range of issues from apparel retail to sustainable mineral resource extraction. Clients have included Marriott, Nike, Rio Tinto, and Forest City. Prior to his career in architecture, Shannon worked in marketing and business consulting for seven years in New York and South Africa on a diverse set of industries. |
Ellen Sollod | ||
 | | Ellen Sollod is an artist and art planner working in the public realm for nearly 20 years. Conceptualizing urban spaces as places for people, she creates site-specific and site-integrated art for plazas, parks, educational facilities, hospitals, streetscapes, and urban infrastructure. Sensitivity to the environment, attention to human scale, and incorporating meaning and metaphor are important considerations in her work. Working as a member of design teams, she has collaborated with architects, landscape architects, lighting designers and engineers to create award-winning public projects. Sollod has also created art master plans and design guidelines for major infrastructure projects. Her approach to urbanism through the incorporation of art and innovative design is informed a M.A. in Urban Studies from the University of Maryland and a B.A. in art history from the University of North Carolina. Ellen’s experience with public policy includes service as the Executive Director of the Seattle Arts Commission and the Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities as well as Assistant Director of the Dance Program of the National Endowment for the Arts. She has served on the National Register of Peer Professionals of the General Services Administration. Locally, she serves on the 12th Avenue Stewards and recently completed service on the Seattle University Citizen’s Advisory Committee. |
Osama Quotah | ||
 | | Osama is a registered architect and LEED TM accredited professional with a diverse background and a strong commitment to connect architecture and landscape design to culture and place. His professional career has included a wide range of projects in Seattle and throughout the U.S. that have focused on sustainability, cultural sensitivity and community-based design solutions. Osama works at LMN Architects. Previoulsy he was at Jones & Jones Architects & Landscape Architects. He has led teams on a number of multi-disciplinary projects that have ranged from large master plans, and civic spaces to intimate museums, interpretive centers and cultural facilities. In all of these projects Osama has strived to honor diversity and cultural expression, invite community involvement and spark curiosity while always moving people to work together, learn together and develop an ever-evolving commitment to environmental stewardship. Osama holds a Bachelors of Art in Architecture from the University of Washington and a Masters of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Fine Arts. |
Debbie Harris | ||
 | | Debbie Wick-Harris, PE, PTOE, LEED® AP is a Civil Department Manager at DCI Engineers and Vice-Chair of the Institute of Transportation’s (ITE) Parking Council Executive Committee. She has more than 20 years of roadway, traffic, site development and construction engineering experience, and has worked on projects in six states and three countries serving developers, local municipalities, county and state departments of transportation. Debbie’s extensive experience gives her a unique background and design perspective. She encourages multi-modal design on her projects and looks for ways to reduce parking and ease congestion. Debbie focuses on the constructability and safety of projects, as well as, the “less is more” design philosophy. Debbie obtained a B.S. in Civil Engineers from the University of Illinois in 1990 and a Certificate of Project Management from the University of Washington in 2001. |
