Loeb Fellow, Harvard Graduate School of Design
For most of the past decade, Denise Arnold has initiated public policies affecting the aesthetics of the built environment for the City of Chicago. As the Program Director of the Architectural Services Unit of the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, Denise influenced the addition to Chicago's Building Code (Chapter 18–11) of innovative accessible housing policies that exceed state and federal accessibility statutes.
She was largely responsible for working with vested parties in the design, development, and real estate management industries interested in developing usable and effective code language. She is currently writing a grant funded Illustrated Guide to Chapter 18-11 in order to better inform architects and builders about barrier free design. She has also spearheaded three national design competitions funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Each of the three competitions raised the level of discourse about affordable housing design, universal design, and the role of the architect in the urban redevelopment process.
Denise holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan and a Master of Science in Urban Design from Columbia University. As a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2006–2007, Denise has studied urban policy development, affordable housing design, and real estate development issues concerning inclusive design practices.
