We sat down with the Managing Partner of our LA office, Connie Chung, to discuss her recent elevation from Principal to Partner, California’s role as a national leader in problem-solving at the urban scale, and what’s in store for HR&A in the LA region and beyond.  

You grew up in LA, but you joined HR&A in New York. What drew you to the company, and after living and working in New York, what inspired you to return home to manage HR&A’s LA office? 

I actually got to know HR&A as a client when I was living in New York. I was the Director of Planning at the Alliance for Downtown New York (a business improvement district for Lower Manhattan) working on all kinds of planning, economic development, and placemaking projects. My role there was focused on implementation, from activating the public realm to working with the Department of City Planning on zoning issues. After Superstorm Sandy, I hired HR&A to advise us on an economic recovery strategy for lower Manhattan for a major grant application. I loved working with these experts I had hired – and I guess the feeling was mutual! 

I joined the firm in 2013 to manage our Program Development and Implementation work for The Lawn on D in Boston, which was a natural fit given my background in placemaking and public space activation. We developed project vision/mission statements and a programming strategy that could realize that vision, and then I actually ran implementation for a year and a half. It was so much fun, and it also kickstarted my work in our parks and open space practice. I also worked on district master plan projects like Detroit’s East Riverfront, where we collaborated closely with the urban designers and the community on a strategic framework for reinvestment in 400 acres adjacent to Downtown and the Detroit Riverwalk. In Pittsburgh, I crafted an economic benefits case for citywide and equitable reinvestment in its parks, to support a ballot measure that voters approved to support funding the park system. 

These types of projects continue to be a focus for me because they’re all about creating places —whether it’s a public park or bringing less tangible investments into a neighborhood — that bring community together and foster a sense of belonging and buzz of activity. These places are at the heart of what makes cities thrive.  

After a while I began working on projects in LA, and that allowed me to visit home more regularly. I saw that Southern California had evolved so much since I was a kid, and that evolution made it an incredibly interesting place for someone interested in planning and urban development. We were building out an entirely new transit system (funded thanks to the passage of Measures R and M); Downtown LA had undergone a massive transformation; and yet this was and is all in the context of the very LA patchwork of neighborhoods spread out across the region. Meanwhile, our Los Angeles office was growing, and I was thrilled at the chance to help lead the office while also making an impact on my hometown.  

Since returning home in 2017, I’ve been proud to lead projects in our region while maintaining a national practice. I worked alongside city leaders and a community coalition on a vision plan for the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena — which led to the community forming a new foundation that is seeking to implement its first project. I’ve also worked with numerous community-based and cultural institutions to evaluate possible real estate strategies in order to better support their missions. And other recent favorite projects outside California have been with the Atlanta BeltLine, and work in New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City, and Denver. 

As I step into my new role as Managing Partner for our Los Angeles office, I think about my young daughter whose hometown this has become, and I’m more excited than ever to play a role in LA’s continued evolution. 

What are some of the greatest challenges facing the LA region right now? 

I think two of our most important challenges right now are housing affordability and climate change, and we have so many of the tools at HR&A to help our clients tackle them. I love that we have never been afraid to dive into the most difficult issues facing our cities; it’s just our culture. So, I want to be laser focused on doing work that’s moving the needle on the most pressing problems here.  

Housing affordability is a statewide (and national) issue, and the related homelessness crisis is an affordable housing crisis. It means we have to figure out how to fund and develop all kinds of affordable housing from extremely low-income to middle-income housing, and we have to think about solutions to homelessness. And you can’t think about either of those things without considering the many and disparate impacts of climate change on our most vulnerable and historically marginalized communities. These issues are so interconnected. 

After working in cities across the country, what do you think is unique about working in LA and California. What excites you about the future here? 

What’s so exciting is that California is a leader in so many things, and we can create models for solving big problems like climate change and the housing crisis that the rest of the country and maybe even the world can take and adapt to solve these issues in their regions. What’s important about the work we’re doing in California is that we’re really digging into how these issues are connected. When we’re doing climate work, we’re considering issues like extreme heat, resilience, equity, water and energy, as well as carbon. We need to look at all of those things holistically.
 

HR&A is so good at thinking comprehensively about the issues facing cities and working in an interdisciplinary way — that’s desperately needed in LA. So, we’re not just working in a silo, writing a report, and handing it over to our clients. We really love getting in the trenches and figuring out the implementation aspects of our plans and how our analysis will be used. We want to help our clients understand what the data means and create a roadmap with them to use our analysis to address the problems they’re hoping to solve and build something better. We want to make an impact and see positive change here because it’s our home.  

I’m excited to expand our presence in LA not just because it’s good for HR&A, but also because I sincerely believe that we can be helpful in improving people’s lives here in LA and across California. That’s our mission, and I want HR&A to be one of the first companies that come to mind when potential clients are thinking about how to move the needle on the big urban challenges that they’re facing. 

Read more about Connie here. 

This excerpt was originally published in PoliticsNY’s Transportation Power Players Announcement.

Carl Weisbrod

Senior Advisor, HR&A Advisors

Carl’s distinguished 40-year career in public service and urban development has been dedicated to building accessible, resilient, and economically vibrant communities. An internationally-sought after expert on city planning, affordable housing policy, and public-private real estate development, Carl has guided some of New York’s most significant public agencies and transformative development initiatives in leadership roles at HR&A Advisors, as chairman of the NYC Planning Commission, and as director of the NYC Department of City Planning.

Why did you pursue a career in transportation?

Transportation is one essential component of a highly functioning urban environment along with planning, economic development, education, and social equity. As we look to the future, I want to continue asking how transportation – particularly public transportation – can most effectively contribute to the lifeblood of a functioning, connected, resilient, and equitable urban environment.

What is your favorite travel experience?

It is certainly not sitting in a traffic jam! 

What transportation improvement would you like to see completed in the future?

After serving as the chair of the MTA’s Traffic Mobility Review Board, I was pleased with MTA’s recent embrace of our recommendations, leading to the nation’s first congestion pricing plan. It’s a transformative change in how people will experience New York City and the region, with the expected easing of traffic that will significantly improve transit times along with reduced carbon emissions and increased use of public transit while providing critical funding for public transportation infrastructure.

What is your preferred method of transportation?

As a lifelong New Yorker, of course, my favorite mode of transit is the subway. It’s the largest and most iconic transit system in the world, and I’m proud to have navigated most of my life traveling along its many routes. Its daily riders reflect the diversity of the city’s residents and visitors. Its pace and density reflect the excitement and rhythm of New York – the world’s greatest city.

See other Transportation Power Players here. 

Photo: World Bank

This press release was originally issued by The World Bank.

In April 2021, the World Bank engaged HR&A Advisors to support an Advisory Services Activity (ASA) under Terms of Reference (TOR) to produce two case study narrative assessments of completed urban infrastructure projects in identifying how those projects impacted private sector partners and/or economic sectors to inform opportunities for targeting and collaborating with private co-investment and enhancing Program Design for urban infrastructure projects. HR&A’s assessment of impacts includes all direct, indirect, and induced impacts, with a focus primarily on indirect and induced impacts as a means of catalyzing private investment. Indirect or induced impacts are also referred to as positive externalities or ‘multiplier’ impacts. Recommendations in this report focus primarily on indirect or ‘multiplier’ impacts associated with real estate values, development activity, business investment, jobs, and quality of life. Real estate values and other development do not necessarily represent a benefit themselves but are a quantifiable measure of the capitalized impacts of a project. 

Click here to read the official PDF report. 

Summer Analyst Fellows turned full time HR&Aers, Principal Erin Lonoff and Analyst Sierra Scott, share insights into their experiences in our Fellowship Program, aligning academic passions with career paths, HR&A’s culture of mentorship, and what they’ve learned along the way.

What inspired you all to apply to the HR&A Summer Fellowship program? And how did HR&A stand out?

Erin: I was a summer fellow a little over ten years ago. Prior to heading to planning school, the planning world itself was unfamiliar territory for me. When I stumbled upon the Fellowship at Summer at HR&A in a job posting, it stood out as the singular internship opportunity that resonated deeply with my passion for quantifying and advocating for public policies. I recognized that while I might not have initially seen myself deeply involved in real estate, my true passion was utilizing data to articulate infrastructure investments and policies that benefit society and the environment. HR&A’s Summer Fellowship Program was the sole internship opportunity I found that explicitly highlighted a focus on using data to advocate for public policy.

Sierra: Towards the end of my time in graduate school, I was still uncertain of whether I wanted to work in the public or private sector. Throughout my academic journey, I’d worked at a state government agency and took on a few contracted policy research gigs, yet my definitive post grad direction remained unclear.

It was a former classmate turned colleague, Miriam Dominguez, who introduced me to HR&A. Her experience as a fellow in 2022 intrigued me, prompting a deeper dive into HR&A’s portfolio. What I found resonated deeply — it epitomized the aspirations I held while pursuing my graduate studies, aligning perfectly with what I like to call a “planner’s dream”.

Despite receiving an opportunity for a two-year policy fellowship, HR&A was the place I wanted to be. It offered an exciting blend of public and private sector exposure and the opportunity to fulfill my professional aspirations. Today, I find myself precisely where I am meant to be, nurturing my career in alignment with my ambitions.

After your fellowships, you both stuck around. Why? What made you decide to join HR&A full time?

Sierra: I consider myself a generalist, which is something you’ll hear from many of us at HR&A. When we form our project teams, we bring together versatile professionals to do work that interweaves public policy and economic development, or housing and public transit planning. As Erin pointed out, our projects encompass diverse components. What truly stood out for me was the exposure I gained. It wasn’t just about isolated industries or sectors; it was about understanding their interrelationships.

The chance to figure out how to implement affordable housing initiatives alongside Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) work was compelling. It offered a holistic view, allowing me to appreciate how these elements aren’t standalone entities but pieces of a larger, interconnected puzzle. HR&A is a space where the work isn’t confined to just one thing. It thrives on the synergy between various sectors.

Erin: Honestly, I didn’t plan on joining the company after my internship, but within days of stepping into the Fellowship, I changed my mind. I fell in love with the job, this company, and New York. That first day, I joined three different projects that were all kicking off at the same time. I loved the pace, the energy, and most importantly, the alignment of excitement among my colleagues. Ten years down the road, I’m still at HR&A, and I’m so happy I made the choice to build a career here.

How do you feel the summer fellowship set you up for transitioning into full time work in this industry?

Erin: Reflecting on my summer fellowship at HR&A, one invaluable takeaway was a holistic understanding of how all these pieces come together in this industry. This insight influenced and shaped my coursework during my final year of planning school. I shifted my focus, veering towards economics, real estate, and data analytics courses to expand my technical knowledge base.

My summer fellowship experience closely mirrors our current Summer Fellowship program’s Track One option, allowing me to complete the Fellowship and return to school before coming back Full Time after graduating.

Sierra: My summer fellowship allowed me to gain experience with technical competencies, while also honing soft skills. Technically, my time at HR&A provided invaluable exposure to various templates and models that hadn’t crossed my path during grad school. Looking back, if I had the chance to lean towards altering certain courses for that crucial exposure, I would.

Pertaining to soft skills, I had always prided myself on time management, navigating multiple jobs alongside a heavy academic load throughout undergrad and grad school. However, transitioning to the corporate world demanded a heightened level of efficiency. It pushed me to elevate my time management skills not just for meeting deadlines, but also making time for self-care. Within this growth, an unexpected skill surfaced: advocating for myself to make sure my project workload was balanced.

Luckily, HR&A offers an abundance of resources and a collective willingness to help me adjust to the pace of corporate life. The team’s readiness to extend support, allocating time to ensure understanding and setting up for success, was really essential in my professional development.

What role did mentorship play in your fellowship experience?

Sierra: I’m based out of one of the smaller offices (Atlanta), but the sense of mentorship extended far and wide. It felt like every individual took on an unofficial mentorship role, generously offering guidance and sharing their experiences and career trajectories, which have helped shape my own path. Surprisingly, what I initially thought might not interest me, like Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) work, has now become my favorite practice area — all thanks to insightful conversations with mentors like Christina De Guilio.

In addition to these informal mentors, the Summer Fellow Mentorship Program was invaluable. My mentor, Rachel Waldman’s flexibility, advocacy, and consistent support were instrumental in my growth. Additionally, the accessibility of partners within the firm for mentorship was remarkable. Despite their busy schedules, they graciously spared time for mentoring sessions, reflecting their genuine commitment to nurturing talent. Joining the workforce can be intimidating! And, when I started, I didn’t always feel comfortable sharing my ideas. But that dynamic changed quickly, especially when working closely with partners who were not only willing to listen to what I had to say but encouraged me to further expand on my ideas.

Erin: Before joining HR&A, I worked in other industries that could feel very hierarchical, where entry-level individuals rarely interacted with senior figures without a compelling reason. However, in just a few weeks, HR&A shattered my previous assumptions. I found a news article relevant to our project and shared it with my project manager. Their response surprised me: they encouraged me to send it directly to Candace Damon, the Partner leading the project. This seemingly simple gesture was eye-opening. It signified a culture where partners were invested in everyone’s success, regardless of tenure, and everyone’s ideas matter. It was a pivotal moment that reshaped my understanding of workplace dynamics and organizational culture.

The impact of these individuals extended beyond my summer experience. Kate Coburn, for example, helped me secure a scholarship when I returned to school .

Now, as a Principal at HR&A, it’s incredible to have built my career alongside these familiar faces who mentored me when I was a Fellow ten years ago, who are now my colleagues and friends. Their commitment to my professional growth sparked my own passion for mentorship, and I love “paying it forward” by mentoring staff and our new classes of Summer Fellows.