Michael Di Pasquale, AIA, AICP is a registered architect and certified urban planner with a small practice in Northampton, Mass. His work consists of urban design, mixed use buildings, and housing for persons with special needs, including one of the nation’s first housing developments for persons with AIDS. He has extensive experience in the revitalization of America’s “Legacy Cities”, the country’s once great manufacturing centers. He recently collaborated with Davis Square Architects, Boston on the design of a mixed use development in Northampton, Mass.
At UMass Amherst/LARP Michael teaches courses and coordinates community outreach activities. In 2009, Michael founded with Professor Frank Sleegers the UMass Amherst Design Center in Springfield and later, the “Make-It Springfield” collaborative maker space in the city’s downtown business district. These facilities provide opportunities for both Springfield residents and UMass students and faculty to engage in a range of creative design and “maker activities”.
Michael currently teaches the fall "Research Issues in Sustainable Community Development" and the spring graduate "Urban Design Studio". He has also served as co-instructor for several graduate planning studios. Special interests include community participation and the role it plays in the equitable redevelopment of older industrial cities. His research has included the impact that transportation has on economic development and the influence that geography and race have on the revitalization of America's "legacy" cities.
Michael is a member of the Board of Directors of the Citizen Planner Training Collaborative (CPTC), an outreach program of UMass Extension that provides learning programs for members of Planning Boards and Zoning Boards of Appeal statewide. Other experience includes design studio instructor at the Boston Architectural College, and architecture instructor at several elementary schools including Citizens School, Boston, MA and Stearns School, Pittsfield, MA.
