Professor John Gilderbloom has successfully produced highly praised conferences over the past 25 years in Honolulu, Houston, Havana, Louisville, and Amsterdam in 2008!   His conferences are unique because you don't stay in a windowless stuffy hotel room to watch powerpoint preserntation.  Instead, his conferences lead by example by giving concrete examples of progressive green urbanism whether its about alternatives to gas guzzling cars, urban sprawl, and crime.  We emphasize experiential learning.  So we try to get out and see it.  Mornings are reserved for academics and professionals to present their ideas about the ideal city. John Gilderbloom has organized international conferences on planning and architecture around the globe.  His organization, Sustainable Urban Networks has organized well attended conferences in Honolulu, Houston.  We have a book and edited journal we are working on.  It strikes a nice balance.   We are also working on getting the leading urban thinkers to make presentations to our group.  Check this website for occasional updates.   Please send us a paper presentation idea.  OK abooout me:

John I. Gilderbloom is a professor of urban and public affairs in the Graduate Program in Urban and Public Affairs at the University of Louisville, where he also directs the highly lauded Center for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods (www.louisville.edu/org/sun ).  Dr. Gilderbloom has won two “best teacher” awards at two different universities. Since 1992, his competitive federally funded grants have been over $3.5 million dollars.  He has also brought in from non-federal sources over a million dollars in real and in-kind contributions from private foundations, churches, businesses and local government.  

Since he earned his Ph.D, Gilderbloom's real estate research has appeared in over thirty peer- reviewed journals, twenty chapters in edited books, eleven monographs and twenty-five opinion pieces in newspapers and magazines. He has written or edited six books. His book Rethinking Rental Housing, was declared, "The most significant piece on housing policy written in the last 30 years" by the Journal of the American Planning Association. A survey of college housing courses by the National Housing Institute found Rethinking Rental Housing to be one of the most widely chosen books.

 In July of 2005 SUNY Press released: Promise and Betrayal:  University and the Creation of Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods which includes an introduction by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros and in the appendix letters of support from  President Bill Clinton and,  Harvard President Derek Bok. His 2008  book, Invisible City: Poverty, Housing and New Urbanism, has earned  praise from  Andres Duany, William Domhoff, Donovan Rypkema, and Neal Pierce.  He has published opinioned pieces in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and USA Today Magazine.  In the Clinton administration he worked as a consultant on several items including State of the Union Speech, Section 108 programs, Hope VI, and Community Outreach Partnership Programs.  His work has won recognition and honors from U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, President Clinton, Sierra Club, American Planning Association Chapter Award, Mayor of Houston, Louisville Sierra Club, National Republican Party,  Harvard Innovations in Government semi-finalist, and American Institute for Architects.

In 2007, Gilderbloom along with an astronaut and movie star, were declared outstanding Alumnus for Mills High School and at his 20^th Annual High School Reunion was named “most successful”, beating out a Harvard Professor,  Hollywood screen writer, and a drug dealer that worked for the Grateful Dead.   In 2007,  Louisville Mayor, Jerry Abramsom named  Gilderbloom “Ambassador” of the city although its meaning is somewhat unclear—picking up garbage in the neighborhood  and saying nice things about Louisville to the New York Times seemed to have clinched it.   

 He has been featured in the Sunday New York Times, Planning, Atlanta Journal Constitution and various other international newspapers  (Japan, Netherlands, Cuba). In 2005 Planetizen called, Encyclopedia of 20th-Century Architecture one of the 10 best planning and architecture books--Gilderbloom’s contribution was a chapter  on modern Cuban architecture.  Dr. Gilderbloom was a key consultant in helping Telesis invest $35 million dollars on the 550 unit City View apartments in West Louisville and more recently completed a five year consultancy in Newport, Kentucky which has resulted in a planned one billion dollar real estate investment.  Dr. Gilderbloom has a modest portfolio of historic Victorians homes restored using green principals (www.gilderbloom.org ).

Gilderbloom has worked as  consultant to organize historic walking tours  in Cuba, Netherlands, and San Francisco for Leadership Kentucky,  Chicago Architectural Foundation,  National Trust for Historic Preservation, Urban Land Institute Delaware Historic Society, Williams College and University of California  (www.hollandnow.org; www.cubanow.org ).   

In 2008, he will release his DVD which includes his slide show talk on restoring older neighborhoods along with various film clips produced by television including his halftime recognition at a UofL basketball game.  Gilderbloom also notes that he once wrote for Rolling Stone Magazine, worked with Cesar Chavez in California,  backed up Allen Ginsberg on flute, studied with poet Kenneth Rexroth, surfs, skis, and snorkels around the world, once played Elvis for a Dick Clark production in a Nevada nightclub,  sells and trades Cuban abstract art,  and is super proud that his Godfather, Dave Lewis, wrote the movie script. “Klute” which won an Academy award.  Dr. Gilderbloom’s proudest achievement is raising his son, Max, to be a nice young man who currently attends Indiana University on an array of  scholarships.