Josiah Brown, MUD ’20
“My education at WashU gave me greater awareness of the ways our built environment can be exclusionary and equipped me to be a conscientious designer working towards a world that is more beautiful, sustainable, and just,” shared alum Josiah Brown, MUD ’20. Learn more about Josiah’s professional journey, from WashU to today, in this spotlight.
Tell us about your work.
I work with cities all across the Mountain West to design built and natural environments that lead to thriving landscapes and communities. The work I do is broad and varied: some days I am at my desk designing downtown streetscape improvements that more equitably distribute the right-of-way between walkers, drivers, and cyclists; and other days I’m on-site hosting a public workshop at a city park, gathering input on what changes a community would like to make to restore the health of their watershed. In my role as an urban designer, I leverage my interdisciplinary background to consider improvements we can make to both the horizontal and vertical planes — ground and structure. Understanding the spatial impacts of a double-loaded corridor building and the drought-resistance of a honey locust tree are both crucial to my work. The projects I work on vary from designs for parks, plazas, and streetscapes to master plans for mixed-use developments, downtowns, bicycle networks, and trail systems.
What’s something you learned at WashU that had a big impact on you?
Linda Samuels’ criteria for next-generation infrastructure. I am always thinking about ways to make our infrastructure more public, multifunctional, and beneficial for people and planet.
How did your WashU education prepare you for your current role?
The Master of Urban Design program at WashU centered design’s impact on the human condition more than either of my other design degrees. I so appreciated the emphasis on design’s ability to uplift burdened communities and more equitably distribute shared resources. My education at WashU gave me greater awareness of the ways our built environment can be exclusionary and equipped me to be a conscientious designer working towards a world that is more beautiful, sustainable, and just.
What do you wish people knew about your field?
Urban design is so important, and the U.S. is in such dire need of good urban design. Especially in the middle of the country. What other profession touches so many aspects of modern life — where we live, play, and work; how we get around; what our everyday environment looks like; all the utilities and infrastructure that keep a city running smoothly? It’s not the most visible profession, but if you’d like to work in a design field that has a significant impact on how we inhabit this planet, I can’t recommend it enough.
What did you do after graduation, and how did you get where you are now? After graduating with my Master of Urban Design at the end of summer 2020 during the height of the pandemic, I enjoyed one leisurely weekend and then jumped right back into a Master of Landscape Architecture program. Two years later, I completed all my schooling and returned to the Mountain West, where I had been working as an architect prior to my graduate studies. I took that whole summer off to recover from three years of grad school and then entered the work force in the fall, full of inspiration from a bike trip across America’s heartland and a thru-hike on the Nüümü Poyo, or John Muir Trail. I was drawn to the Mountain West because of its dramatic landscapes in great need of protection and the opportunity to have a large impact on settlement patterns in a region with a relatively recent history of urban development. I chose a job as an urban designer for the opportunity to incorporate the varied training I’d received in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. And I chose Boise because it offers something unique in an American cityscape: from my downtown apartment, the ability to walk to work, bike to church, and run to the mountains.
Site Plan
