John Norquist
The former mayor of Milwaukee has had a longtime interest in urban revitalization and development. During his tenure as mayor, he oversaw a plan to remove the city’s Park East Freeway and to restore the traditional street grid that the freeway had disrupted. He led a revision of the city’s zoning code and reoriented the city’s development around walkable streets and public amenities such as the city’s 3.1-mile Riverwalk.
Norquist left the mayor’s office in 2004 to run the Congress for the New Urbanism in Chicago. There, he continued his work against the regulatory obstacles that get in the way of walkable, livable urban neighborhoods. A strong partner with the U.S. Green Building Council, he was instrumental in developing the LEED-Neighborhood Design standards. He retired from his position at CNU in 2014 to write and teach.
