The Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) is presenting a webinar, Implementing Sustainable Growth: Maryland’s Place Principle in Action. Panelists will discuss how they incorporate placemaking into their work and implement a sense of place in their communities. MDP will be joined by local placemaking partners from the Montgomery County Planning Department and the University of Oregon. Panelists will discuss Maryland’s new Sustainable Growth Place Principle, establishing place in comprehensive plans, and implementing place through their work. Emphasizing best practices and research from the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, planning, development, and ecology, panelists will also explore how sustainable urban design can be used to enhance a variety of community places.
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Panelists
Darius White
Darius White is a Baltimore City native, educator, and planner whose work bridges real estate, community development, architecture, and placemaking. A graduate of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Morgan State University, he holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and a Master’s in City and Regional Planning.
Darius has worked across the private, nonprofit, and public sectors. He currently serves as Community Design and Development Lead at the Maryland Department of Planning, advancing the Moore-Miller Administration’s efforts to strengthen Maryland’s business climate and economic competitiveness. In this role, he directs the Coordinated Permitting Review Council under Secretary Rebecca Flora and leads implementation of the Economy Principle within Maryland’s Sustainable Growth Planning Principles, guiding the state toward equitable and balanced development.
Previously, Darius led design strategy and community-driven development projects as Director of Projects at the Parks and People Foundation and through his private practice, Byzig Studio. His work includes placemaking projects such as the Sandlot venues in Washington, D.C., green infrastructure improvements, public space activations, and multimodal trail initiatives. He brings expertise in concept design, strategic visioning, community engagement, fundraising, and project management.
In addition, Darius is an Adjunct Professor at the University of the District of Columbia, where he teaches courses in Urban Design, Community Design, and Planning.
Atul Sharma, AICP, LEED, CNU
Atul is an urban planner at the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission. As an architectural and urban designer, Atul has extensive experience in integrated community planning, transit-oriented development, large scale sustainable master planning, mixed-use communities, neighborhood design, design guidelines and contextual architecture. During his career, Atul has worked in the United States and internationally on both architecture and urban design projects with some of the top leaders in planning, architecture and real estate development. Atul loves creating places that are sustainable and contextual and elevate the experience of everyday life for all members of the community. Atul also has a keen interest in improving the practice of design through research and exploring emerging technological trends.
Susan Llareus, PLA, ASLA
Susan Llareus currently leads regional planning activities in the Maryland Capital Region (Prince Georges, Montgomery and Frederick Counties) and oversees the Central and Southern Maryland Regions as one of three Regional Directors in the Planning Best Practices Division. She is also the Lead Facilitator for implementing the Place Principle.
Susan is a licensed Landscape Architect in the State of Maryland. Over her career, she has experience in both the private and public sectors, specializing in landscape architecture, planning and design. As a site planner with a private engineering company, Susan gained her knowledge of construction and management of entitlements. As a master planner with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, she gained a thorough understanding of how to balance design and economic development by collaborating with project consultant teams and citizen planners to create healthy and vibrant places for Prince Georgians to live, work, and play.
As a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she holds degrees in Landscape Architecture and Horticulture. Her work is extensive in the fields of landscape architecture, urban design and planning. She is deeply passionate about placemaking, integrating nature and art into urban environments, environmental protection, historic and cultural preservation, and championing quality and equitable design across all Maryland communities.
Nico Larco, AIA
Nico Larco, AIA, is an urban designer, architect, and professor. He leads ELEMENT/Urban Design, a design and consulting firm, and has been a Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Oregon since 2004 where he is also the Director of the Urbanism Next Center and Co-Director of the Sustainable Cities Institute. Since 2018, he has also been a Strategic Advisor and Researcher at TNO, a Dutch national think-tank.
Prof. Larco researches and teaches sustainable urban design, has developed the Sustainable Urban Design Framework, is the lead author of the Sustainable Urban Design Handbook published in 2024, and assists cities and projects on how best to apply these principles and approaches. His work around Urbanism Next is focused on how technological advances such as shared mobility, self-driving cars, e-commerce and the sharing economy are changing city form and development. Prof. Larco assists cities and projects in future-proofing to thrive amidst these advances, has run workshops and charrettes nationally and internationally on this topic, and has coordinated work in this area with various municipal and state agencies across North America and in Europe.
Prof. Larco has published in various academic and professional journals and his work has been covered by Wired, the New York Times, Fast Company, Bloomberg News, Forbes, the Financial Times of London, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He was a Fulbright Scholar in 2012/13 in Spain at the Polytechnic University of Catalunya and at the University of Navarra, a Visiting Professor at TU Delft in 2018/19, and was a Fulbright Scholar in 2019 at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile. He has testified on his research to the US Congress, has worked on research for the European Commission, and was a speaker at TEDx College Park.
Paul Mortensen, LEED-AP, RA, CNU
Paul Mortensen is a Chief and Senior Urban Designer in the Director’s Office at Montgomery Planning and is leading the Design Excellence efforts within the organization. He is a registered architect in the states of California, Washington and Maryland, is a LEED Accredited Professional, a member of the Congress for New Urbanism, and is an Architect and Urban Designer of significant talent and experience with a strong emphasis on sustainable architecture design in urban settings.
His primary focus over the past thirty years has been on master planning and urban design of residential and mixed-use communities throughout the country. Mr. Mortensen was an Associate Principle with Torti Gallas and Partners in Silver Spring, Maryland where he served as a leading principal of the Planning and Urban Design Studio and was involved in a number of large-scale, award-winning master planning projects and new town designs such as the Crystal City, Virginia Master Plan and the Tacoma, Washington Salishan HOPE VI development. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor in design at the University of Maryland’s School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
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