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Townmakers is headed by Mike Weinstock, a town builder with over thirty years of experience on projects across the US. Mike grew up on the East Coast but came to the West Coast as a young man, starting in the world of construction and urban development by selling wood windows, and later graduating to larger projects.

 

Mike's interest is in walkable, healthy, mixed use neighborhoods with the livability of great old American towns, combined with cutting-edge technology and resource-efficient design. Currently he is working on a major project in Ashland, Oregon, a university town offering exciting opportunities for locally appropriate economic and urban development to meet local needs and challenges. 

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Lead urban designer Laurence Qamar, architect, has played a key role in creating some of the most popular and successful walkable mixed-use neighborhoods and even entire new towns in the Northwest, including Seabrook, Washington. Laurence has worked in many cities in Oregon and Washington. In Ashland, Oregon, he was a planner for North Mountain and Old Mill Districts in the early 2000s, and in Kennewick, Washington, he played a key role in masterplanning the Vista Field project, a redevelopment of a former airfield. He has also played a key role in designing popular and industry-leading communities across the USA. Laurence lives with his wife in Portland, Oregon, where she teaches art at Reed College (the alma mater of Steve Jobs). 
 

Lead planner Michael Mehaffy, Ph.D., has played key roles in industry-leading projects in the USA and internationally. He was project manager of Orenco Station in Portland, Oregon, an acclaimed walkable mixed-use and transit-oriented neighborhood. Michael is also a noted educator and author, having had seven university appointments in six countries. He is also the author or co-author of five books, and many scientific and professional articles, and he is on the editorial boards of three international journals of urban design. He currently teaches a popular university course in sustainable urban planning at Arizona State University, and he has developed several pilot curricula in the field. While working in London for the Prince of Wales, he developed an education program in sustainable urban development that has since become a Masters' and Ph.D. program at the University of Oxford. He received his own Ph.D. in architecture at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands, and did undergraduate work in liberal arts, music and design at The Evergreen State College in Olympia and California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles, and graduate work in philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, and in architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, studying and working closely with the pioneering architect Christopher Alexander. Michael currently lives in the Columbia Gorge in Washington near two daughters and seven grandchildren, and he has also lived in Oregon for many years. One of his daughters graduated in the 1990s from Southern Oregon University in Ashland with a degree in biology. Two other daughters graduated from Portland State University, with degrees in environmental science and neuroscience.

 

Executive Team Coordinator Carlene Chin has owned and operated multiple wholesale and manufacturing  businesses in the Pacific Northwest since 1989.  Her background in Sales, Marketing, Team Leadership and B2B relationship building is extensive. Carlene thrives on  facilitating strong lasting partnerships with all of those around her.

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