Kheir Al-KodmanyUniversity of Illinois at Chicago | UIC · Department of Urban Planning and Policy
Kheir Al-Kodmany
Doctor of Philosophy in Urban and Regional Planning The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign .
About
116
Publications
329,812
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
2,819
Citations
Introduction
Dr. Kheir Al-Kodmany is a Professor of Spatial Planning and Urban Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). His research and teaching cover a wide-spectrum of topics, including vertical urbanism, sustainable design, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), visualization systems, public participation, crowd management, economic development, and skyscrapers. He has published over 100 papers and six books. He taught for 23 years at UIC and five years at UIUC. He ranks among top ten faculty according to a study titled “Faculty Quality at U.S. Graduate Planning Schools, A National Research Council–Style Study,” by Journal of Planning Literature.
Publications
Publications (116)
Urbanization is a significant global phenomenon, with 55% of the population living in urban areas. By 2050, 68% of the world’s population is expected to be urban (United Nations, 2019). This shift from rural to urban areas presents opportunities and challenges, including socio-economic and environmental issues. The shift from rural to urban society...
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations forecasts that by 2050 the global population will grow by nearly 2 billion persons. Consequently, we must sustainably produce 70% more food (United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization...
This book discusses how cities’ identities are formed and developed over time and portrays architecture and the arts as the embodiment of the historical, cultural, and economic characteristics of cities. Furthermore, it explores strategies and solutions to preserve the cultural heritage along the Silk Road, representing a compilation of research ad...
The greenery-covered tall building, an innovative building typology that substantially integrates vegetation into the design, promises to transform urban landscapes into more sustainable and livable spaces. This paper explores the concept of greenery-covered tall buildings. It achieves its objectives by offering an overall introduction to this buil...
Greenery-covered towers are a new generation of tall buildings characterized by substantial integration of vegetation. They aim to improve the quality of urban life by reducing air pollution, enhancing biodiversity, creating microclimates, and providing aesthetic and psychological benefits. This paper examines the innovative design approaches of gr...
Efficient vertical transportation is vital to a skyscraper’s functional operation and the convenience and satisfaction of its tenants. This review complements the author’s previously published research by updating the readers on innovative hardware and software-based solutions. It lays out, organizes, and combines extensive and scattered material o...
Effective vertical mobility is a crucial element in the design and construction of tall buildings. This paper reviews recent “smart” developments in elevator technologies and analyzes how they affect the construction and operation of tall buildings. In an approachable and non-technical discourse, it maps out, arranges, and compiles complicated and...
Design priorities for tall and supertall buildings have for some time shifted to achieving more energy efficiency to address the energy needs of the increasing global population. Engineers and architects aim to achieve energy conservation through active and passive approaches, pursuing technological innovations and adopting climate-responsive desig...
Structural systems for tall buildings have gone through an evolutionary process. The rigid frame became popular in the first half of the 20th century but proved to be structurally inefficient beyond a certain height of tall buildings. The invention of the tubular structure in the 1960s allowed buildings to be built taller with low material consumpt...
This article examines outstanding “sustainable” skyscrapers that received international recognition, including LEED certification. It identifies vital green features in each building and summarizes the prominent elements for informing future projects. Overall, this research is significant because, given the mega-scale of skyscrapers, any improvemen...
As the world moves toward becoming 70% urbanized by 2050, urban density becomes imperative in decisions on the urban environment and living quality. This paper builds on the polycentric and “rail village” development model that applies a “concentrated” density in strategic locations to create hyper-connected, socially vibrant hubs. Notably, it prop...
DESCRIPTION
Efficient vertical mobility is a critical component of the development and construction of tall buildings. This chapter investigates recent advances in elevator technology and examines their impact on the development of tall buildings. It maps out, organizes, and collates complex and scattered information on multiple aspects of elevator...
Increasingly, architects and engineers are interested in pursuing sustainable design. Yet, they lack sources that summarize best practices. As such, this review paper maps out and examines prominent examples of "sustainable" skyscrapers of varying geographic locations, climates, and socio-cultural contexts. It discusses the design themes and green...
Purpose
This paper reviews, summarizes and pieces together scattered information on the newly completed Chicago Riverwalk in Chicago, Illinois. It explains the design process that transformed an outmoded infrastructure and disused river banks into an attractive gathering civic space, a linear urban park and a functional transportation corridor.
De...
This chapter investigates the Chicago Loop, the city’s Central Business District (CBD). A large concentration of tall buildings in a relatively small area (about a square mile) reinforces a powerful downtown image. The chapter first explains briefly the history of development of the Loop. Next, based on the preliminary research findings, it examine...
This chapter examines the Magnificent Mile, one of the most popular commercial places in North America. The chapter first offers a brief history of its development and the factors that made it significant. Visual and spatial analysis indicates that tall buildings along this vital path create two remarkable clusters, the “Grand Gateway” and the “Cit...
This chapter summarizes key methods of collecting public opinion about the urban environment. Undoubtedly, people’s needs and preferences continue to be underrepresented in the planning process and planners argue that it is essential to devise methods that allow residents to voice their opinions on existing conditions or proposed plans. Effective c...
This chapter offers a fresh account on current tall building developments around the globe. By analyzing extensive data, the chapter contrasts building activities before and after the turn of the new century. It gives a brief review of the development of high-rise buildings in world’s continents, including Asia, Middle East, Europe, North America,...
This chapter examines the Chicago Skyline. Read as a unit; a skyline forms a potent urban symbol that manifests citizens’ achievements, economic status, cultural ambition, and lifestyle. An imageable skyline boosts the city’s reputation, reinforces civic life, and fosters pride. It also helps residents and visitors to better orient themselves withi...
This chapter presents the theoretical framework of this research. It proposes a placemaking conceptual model that illustrates the interrelatedness of various theories on urban imageability, likeability, symbolism, placemaking, sustainability, and public participation. It hypothesizes that participatory placemaking promotes a healthier social life,...
This chapter presents the preliminary findings of this research. It explains the use of social media data and the role of geographic information systems in visualizing it. The produced heatmaps help in identifying ten major socio-spatial clusters in the Chicago CBD. Importantly, field surveys validated these clusters. For illustration purposes, a s...
This extended chapter offers critical placemaking messages. Undoubtedly, individual landmark buildings and significant public spaces in the City of Chicago are already known. However, this study delineates spatial clusters of landmark buildings and public places, amenities, parks, and museums that collectively foster a unique sense of place. The ch...
This chapter focuses on urban developments around the Chicago River, the birthplace of the City of Chicago. It offers first a brief history of important projects and forces that made Chicago a global city. Next, it examines the spatial arrangements of tall buildings along this water path and analyzes significant edges and clusters that support plac...
Today, many significant factors, including massive globalization, rapid urban population increase, intense urban regeneration, extensive agglomeration, soaring land prices, and a dire need for land preservation, among others, force cities to build upward. However, many cities lack the experience of integrating vertical density into their urban land...
This chapter reviews recent advances in greenhouse technologies, including hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics, and explains how they have provided a promising future to the vertical farm concept. It argues that compact high-tech agriculture is not only applicable in dense urban areas but also in peri-urban areas. Indeed, new high-tech systems...
The chaotic proliferation of skyscrapers in many cities around the world is contributing to a decline in placemaking. This book examines the role of skyscrapers and open spaces in promoting placemaking in the city of Chicago. Chicago’s skyscrapers tell an epic story of transformative architectural design, innovative engineering solutions, and bold...
This paper explores a blend of digital and traditional methods to inform about a city’s popular spaces. Using locational data from social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, along with using participatory field surveys and direct observations and combining insights from architecture and urban design literature, this study re...
The first two decades of the twenty-first century represent a major milestone in skyscraper developments. By analyzing extensive data, the research presented here contrasts building activities of skyscrapers before and after the turn of the 21st century. It examines tall buildings in the world’s major continents (Asia, Europe, North America, Oceana...
Much of the anticipated future growth in North America will occur in suburbia. The critical challenge that we will face is how to accommodate this growth in a sustainable and resilient manner. While the past 50 years have been characterized by suburban sprawl and low-rise development, “suburban sustainability” is increasingly making its way into th...
As cities cope with rapid population growth—adding 2.5 billion dwellers by 2050—and grapple with destructive sprawl, politicians, planners, and architects have become increasingly interested in the vertical city paradigm. Given the large-scale problems of skyscrapers, any improvements in their planning, design, and construction would be significant...
This paper provides a summary of a recent book by the author on urban design guidelines for integrating tall buildings in urban environments. The paper discusses the placemaking problems created by tall buildings, and simultaneously attempts to harness the potential of tall buildings to enhance placemaking. The research contends that instead of con...
Each century has its own unique approach toward addressing the problem of high density and the 21st century is no exception. As cities try to cope with rapid population growth - adding 2.5 billion dwellers by 2050 - and grapple with destructive sprawl, politicians, planners and architects have become increasingly interested in the vertical city par...
This paper discusses the emerging need for vertical farms by examining issues related to food security, urban population growth, farmland shortages, “food miles”, and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Urban planners and agricultural leaders have argued that cities will need to produce food internally to respond to demand by increasing popu...
As cities cope with rapid population growth-adding 2.5 billion dwellers by 2050-and grapple with expansive sprawl, politicians, planners, and architects have become increasingly interested in the vertical city paradigm. This paper reviews and examines shortfalls of tall buildings found in the literature to inform future developments. The paper gath...
There is much architectural and engineering literature which discusses the virtues of exterior bracing and diagrid systems in regards to sustainability - two systems which generally reduce building materials, enhance structural performance, and decrease overall construction cost. By surveying past, present as well as possible future towers, this pa...
This paper examines recent sustainable tall buildings in the Global South, mainly in the Middle East and China. These buildings are redefining how architects, engineers, and planners view skyscrapers, creating a new building typology in regards to function, ecology, technology, and user comfort, in the process. These "futuristic" buildings are sett...
Much of the anticipated future growth in the United States will take place in suburbia. The critical challenge is how to accommodate this growth in a sustainable and resilient manner. This book explores the role of suburban tall as a viable, sustainable alternative to continued suburban sprawl. It identifies 10 spatial patterns in which tall buildi...
Efficient vertical mobility is a critical component of tall building development and construction. This paper investigates recent advances in elevator technology and examines their impact on tall building development. It maps out, organizes, and collates complex and scattered information on multiple aspects of elevator design, and presents them in...
This article explores how community-based organizations working in low-income residential neighborhoods of U.S. cities employ e-tools and social networking platforms to engage the youth. The authors interviewed representatives of community organizations that work with young adults from lower-income groups in Chicago to comprehend their actual usage...
This paper investigates innovative trends, practices and goals of tall building retrofits while illustrating green design techniques and implementation strategies. The existing building stock is substantially large and represents one of the biggest opportunities to reduce energy waste and curb air pollution and global warming. In terms of tall buil...
Purpose
– The aim of this paper is to identify the university student’s preferences for some important attributes of residence hall design. The study also attempts to highlight the differences and similarities in student’s preferences.
Design/methodology/approach
– The survey was distributed among students who were living in residence halls of a p...
Recently, massive urbanization, increasingly denser cities and environmental consciousness are pushing architects to build "green" skyscraper. This paper examines the emergence of a notable type of skyscrapers that depart from purely image-driven structures, and emphasizes functionality and energy efficiency. It argues that breathtaking green desig...
As our cities become denser and host larger gathering events, the need for scientific and computational approaches to crowd management increases. Today, our cities must cater to activities and places that involve massive crowds such as the Olympics, large transportation terminals and mega entertainment and shopping centers. The planning challenges...
Globalization has supported the exportation of exotic design and construction of many buildings including skyscrapers. In the past two decades skyscrapers have proliferated across cities all over the world, particularly those in the Arabian Peninsula. Because of their massive bulk and soaring height, these skyscrapers have dramatically altered the...
Shanghai and Dubai have recently marked a new epoch in the history of skyscrapers. Through the examination of these two cities, this paper attempts to identify the key driving forces for constructing skyscrapers in newly emerging global cities. The findings indicate that in addition to economic factors, globalization, political support, tourism, br...
A skyline is the urban signature that defines the city's identity and reflects its economic and global standing. Providing visual order and harmony among tall buildings is a key factor for ensuring aesthetically pleasing skylines. Currently, a new generation of skyscrapers, constructed with innovative technologies, building materials, and computeri...
The tall building is the most dominating symbol of the cities and a human-made marvel that defies gravity by reaching to the clouds. It embodies unrelenting human aspirations to build even higher. It conjures a number of valid questions in our minds. The foremost and fundamental question that is often asked: Why tall buildings? This review paper se...
Because of their massive bulk and soaring height, skyscrapers immensely impact placemaking. Today, skyscrapers are not exclusive to the U.S.; they have prevailed in many other countries across the world. This paper examines the role of skyscrapers in supporting placemaking in non-Western countries; mainly in China, India, and the Middle East, which...
This paper provides detailed examinations on the use of GIS in nonprofit organizations. We interviewed planners and GIS experts in key nonprofit organizations in the City of Chicago to comprehend their actual usages of GIS, faced chal-lenges, and accumulated experiences. Organizations reported on dozens of projects where GIS was used for practical...
This paper presents a comprehensive design approach to sustainable tall buildings development. It argues that the true efficiency and success of tall buildings are heightened by their overall relationship with their urban setting and infrastructure. Tall and supertall buildings are mini-cities and their social, economic, and environmental impacts e...
Despite their profound impact on our cities, research on tall buildings’ role in placemaking is scarce (Brown et al, 2009). This article attempts to fill this gap by providing a conceptual model for analyzing tall building design, spatial location and the associated public spaces. The model specifically examines the role of tall buildings in placem...
The world population will drastically increase in the future, particularly in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Even in Europe, where some cities are experiencing a negative growth rate, on the whole the population will steadily increase. In Australia and Canada, as well, population will steadily increase, although in the United States the growth ra...
More than 2,000 people die every year due to crowd mismanagement at large gatherings, including Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca (Widyarto and Abd. Latiff, 2007). This paper explains the planning and design process that improved public safety throughout Hajj, particularly for the Symbolic Stoning of the Devil ritual. The new design is co...
Public participation is a key component in environmental planning and design. Yet too often, architects and planners are not equipped with effective tools and visualisation techniques to generate meaningful public input. Architects and planners are increasingly turning to computer technology; computer imaging can be used to support exploration of a...
A plethora of contemporary tall building designs appear to lack genuine architecture for they employ eccentric forms to compete for attention and they poorly respond to their specific environment and the climate (Gang, 2008). However, this paper examines the emergence of a notable type of tall buildings, described as eco-iconic, which depart from p...
Spatial information is a crucial cornerstone of e-planning. This paper explains the process of constructing a mega geospatial database for the Hajj, the annual Muslim Pilgrimage to Makkah, Saudi Arabia. It discusses the complex process and influence of top-down political power on the comprehensive planning process for the Hajj. It specifically exam...
The Hajj is an annual Muslim pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. This article describes the politics and planning involved in building a geographic information system (GIS) that can help in the planning of this massive event. Hajj involves 3 million people moving to multiple sites over a large region at different times. More than 20 agencies are involved i...
While community-based organizations (CBOs) increasingly seek to utilize geographic information systems (GISs) for neighborhood planning and development, many have serious misconceptions about what GIS can and cannot do and what is needed to make effective use of it. This article describes the problems and opportunities in utilizing GIS as a tool fo...
Questions
Question (1)
Dear Sander: Could I get your permission to use Figure 4 for a paper I am working on?