Vikas Mehta

Vikas Mehta
AwardsPlace Book Award, Environmental Design Research Association (2014)
Athena City Accolade (2022)
Academic background
EducationMorgan State University (MArch)
University of Maryland, College Park (PhD)
Academic work
DisciplineUrban design
InstitutionsUniversity of Cincinnati
Notable works
The Street: A Quintessential Social Public Space (2013)

Vikas Mehta is an urban designer, author, and academic. He is a professor of urbanism at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP), where he holds the Fruth/Gemini Chair and is an Ohio Eminent Scholar of Urban/Environmental Design.[1] His research examines streets and other public spaces as settings for social life.[1][2]

Education and career

Mehta received a diploma in architecture from the Institute of Environmental Design in Gujarat, India, in 1990, a Master of Architecture from Morgan State University in 1998, and a PhD in urban and regional planning and design from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2006.[1] He taught at the University of South Florida from 2006 to 2014 before joining the University of Cincinnati, where he directs the Master of Urban Design program.[1]

His book The Street: A Quintessential Social Public Space (2013) argues that a central role of the street as public space is to provide a setting for social behavior.[3] His later work, including Public Space: Notes on Why It Matters, What We Should Know, and How to Realize Its Potential (2023), addresses the design and social value of public space more broadly.[4]

On April 30, 2021, Mehta participated in a roundtable discussion with Vice President Kamala Harris at the University of Cincinnati's 1819 Innovation Hub on public transit investment under the American Jobs Plan.[5][6] In 2024, he was part of a DAAP team that advised the Nodes Project, an effort with the Price Hill community in Cincinnati to provide free public Wi-Fi and access to digital public library resources in an outdoor space.[7] In 2025, he served as a panelist at an AIA Cincinnati forum on the urban design implications of proposed sites for a new sports arena in downtown Cincinnati.[8]

Awards and recognition

In 2008, Mehta received an honorable mention for the Chester Rapkin Award for the best paper in the Journal of Planning Education and Research, given by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning.[9] The Street was a finalist for the Francis Tibbalds Award[1] and received the 2014 Place Book Award from the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA).[10] In 2022, he received the Athena City Accolade from the Centre for the Future of Places at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.[11] Public Space (2023) received an honorable mention for the 2024 EDRA Place Book Award.[4]

Selected bibliography

  • The Street: A Quintessential Social Public Space (Routledge, 2013)
  • Public Space (Critical Concepts in Built Environment series; editor; Routledge, 2015)
  • 101 Things I Learned in Urban Design School (with Matthew Frederick; Three Rivers Press, 2018)
  • Companion to Public Space (edited with Danilo Palazzo; Routledge, 2020)
  • Public Space Reader (edited with Miodrag Mitrašinović; Routledge, 2021)
  • Public Space: Notes on Why It Matters, What We Should Know, and How to Realize Its Potential (Routledge, 2023)
  • The Case for Cities (edited with Danilo Palazzo, Conrad Kickert, Christopher Auffrey, and Terry Grundy; Routledge, 2024)

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Expert Profile: Vikas Mehta". University of Cincinnati Research Directory. Retrieved July 21, 2026.
  2. ↑ "Dr. Vikas Mehta". Academic Advisory Council for Signage Research and Education. February 13, 2018. Retrieved July 21, 2026.
  3. ↑ "The Street: A Quintessential Social Public Space". Routledge. Retrieved July 21, 2026.
  4. 1 2 "Public Space: notes on why it matters, what we should know, and how to realize its potential". Routledge. Retrieved July 21, 2026.
  5. ↑ Francisco, Courtney (April 30, 2021). "Vice President Kamala Harris visits Cincinnati for infrastructure discussion". WCPO-TV. Retrieved July 21, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Vice Presidential Pool Reports of April 30, 2021". The American Presidency Project. Retrieved July 21, 2026.
  7. ↑ Koenig, Angela (June 27, 2024). "DAAP designers work with Price Hill community to provide free Wi-Fi in outdoor space". University of Cincinnati News. Retrieved July 21, 2026.
  8. ↑ "The Urban Design Impact of a New Sports Arena in Downtown Cincinnati". AIA Cincinnati. Retrieved July 21, 2026.
  9. ↑ "Faculty Award – Chester Rapkin Award". Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. Retrieved July 21, 2026.
  10. ↑ "Environmental Design Research Association Announces Recipients of 16th Annual Great Places Awards". PRWeb (Press release). May 2014. Retrieved July 21, 2026.
  11. ↑ "UC professor Vikas Mehta receives Athena City Accolade award". University of Cincinnati News. February 25, 2022. Retrieved July 21, 2026.
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