People

Jennifer Hurley, AICP, FCNU, PP

President & CEO
Drawing on her background in conflict resolution, Ms. Hurley has twenty years of professional expertise facilitating public involvement in planning and development issues.  She has been active in the New Urbanism movement for over fifteen years, working on numerous charrettes for regional planning, downtown revitalization, traditional neighborhood development, and form-based zoning.  She wrote one of the first articles chronicling the implementation of New Urbanist zoning codes, authored the SmartCode Affordable Housing Policy module, and has taught in the Growth and Structure of Cities Department at Bryn Mawr College.  She is a past fellow of the Knight Program in Community Building at the University of Miami School of Architecture and is a National Charrette Institute Certified Charrette Planner™.  She was Treasurer of the Congress for the New Urbanism and currently serves on the Form Based Codes Institute Resource Council and the Transect Codes Council. Ms. Hurley holds a Master of Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Graduate University, a Master of Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College. 

Philip E. Franks, AIA, AICP

Vice President & CFO

Mr. Franks has more than 40 years of professional experience, beginning as Project Planner at the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.  Before starting his own firm in 1997, he was a full partner in another Philadelphia firm for 27 years, including five years as its managing partner.  Over the past four decades, Mr. Franks has served on the Board’s of a number of organizations serving on various committees including officer positions; the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, an independent Pre-K-6 grade school (The Philadelphia School), the Benson Table of the Union League of Philadelphia, and is currently a member of the Lower Merion Township Historical Architectural Review Board (HARB) a board he has also chaired from time-to-time. Mr. Franks has developed a broad professional focus with accompanying experience that ranges from facilitating solutions to complex infrastructure projects; to the renovation and expansion of educational facilities, to the preservation and renovation of historical properties. Mr. Franks is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s PennDesign program, where he received master’s degrees in both Architecture and City Planning. Mr. Franks is a registered architect in nine states and is a National Council of Architectural Board (NCARB) certificate holder. He also maintains a certificate in planning with the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).