MENTOR FORUM
Meet our Mentors!
This years Mentor Forum, we have a strong lineup of urban designers, planners and architects who have generously opened up their schedules to host In-person and Online mentoring sessions, exclusively for our members.
We asked them two questions to learn more about who they are and what has shaped their passions.
Targol Khorram
Homes Victoria, VIC (In-person Mentor)
Session One – Thursday April 11, 2024
12:00 PM → 1:30 PM
“As a leader in urban planning and place management, I am dedicated to creating vibrant communities. My experience encompasses roles in urban and infrastructure project design, delivery, consulting, advocacy, and leadership. Highlights of my career include promoting safe and inclusive team operations, initiating strategic projects, fostering community engagement, and advocating for sustainable urban development.”
Throughout your career, what has been your most favoured project that you’ve been part of? It could be based on new experiences, lessons learnt, or a project that may have catapulted your career.
“My volunteer work with Architects for peace and organising various talks and events to advocate for social justice in the built environment.“
What are your hobbies outside of your career profession? Tell us something personal about you and how you spend your spare time.
“I enjoy a morning walk by the beach.“
Jesse McNicoll
City of Sydney, NSW (Online Mentor)
Session One – Thursday April 11, 2024
12:00 PM → 1:30 PM
Jesse leads urban design in strategic planning projects at the City of Sydney Council including managing Central Sydney (the CBD) and the Green Square renewal area. Jesse is passionate about walking, cycling and climate action.
Throughout your career, what has been your most favoured project that you’ve been part of? It could be based on new experiences, lessons learnt, or a project that may have catapulted your career.
“Developing the Walking Space Guide with TfNSW stretched me to develop technical data analysis skills that all the master planning work I have done had not.“
What are your hobbies outside of your career profession? Tell us something personal about you and how you spend your spare time.
“I love to walk with our family dog Sunny. My family think that Sunny, who is an adopted camp dog from central Australia, is my spirit animal. Sunny is lovely but also extremely lazy – I’m not sure what my family are trying to tell me.“
Nicole Allen
ARUP, VIC (In-person Mentor)
Session One – Tuesday April 9, 2024
1:30 PM → 3:00 PM
I am a designer with expertise across architecture, urban design, and master planning. I specialise in bringing a design-led, beautifully communicated, and principled approach to highly complex, multidisciplinary projects.
“I work fluidly between conceptual design, research, project management and delivery. Having worked on some of the most complex and demanding typologies, I have both depth and breadth of experience across mixed-use, residential, education, infrastructure, and commercial mega-projects. In my process, I strive to give equal weight to both human and non-human stakeholders—creating a more just, equitable, and flourishing world for all its inhabitants.”
Throughout your career, what has been your most favoured project that you’ve been part of? It could be based on new experiences, lessons learnt, or a project that may have catapulted your career.
“The best is yet to come….“
What are your hobbies outside of your career profession? Tell us something personal about you and how you spend your spare time.
“Outside of work I spend all time cuddling my two-year-old daughter Elena, 10-month-old puppy Lola, and cat Matilda. Occasionally that leaves time for cooking, reading, teaching, and having long, winding conversations with friends while walking under gum trees somewhere.”
Liam Mouritz
City of Fremantle, WA (Online Mentor)
Session One – Friday April 12, 202
3:00 PM → 4:30 PM
Liam Mouritz is located in Perth on Whadjuk Noongar Country and specializes in master planning and public realm projects which prioritise opportunities for nature. He has experience working in Australia, China, and the UK and currently works as the Principal Urban Designer at the City of Fremantle.
Throughout your career, what has been your most favoured project that you’ve been part of? It could be based on new experiences, lessons learnt, or a project that may have catapulted your career.
“The current project I am working on is probably my favorite challenge so far… I am developing a City Plan for the historic city center of Walyalup Fremantle. Its a beautiful and culturally significant area with so much potential, making it something I am really excited to be working on.“
What are your hobbies outside of your career profession? Tell us something personal about you and how you spend your spare time.
“I am a new dad of a 1 year old son, that takes up most of my spare time at the moment. Beyond that im a AFL fan (Fremantle Dockers), soccer fan (Arsenal), love surfing, movies and engaging in other creative and interesting things going on around town.“
Rob Adams
Adams Urban, VIC (In-person Mentor)
Session One – Monday April 8, 2024
8:15 AM → 9:45 AM
Rob Adams is an Architect and Urban Designer with over 50 years experience in both African and Australia. 40 years with the City of Melbourne assisting in the writing and delivery of the 1985 Strategy Plan that resulted in the transformation of the central city. Rob led the inhouse, fee for service, design and delivery team consisting of Urban designers, Architects, Landscape Architects, Industrial Designers and Project Managers. The team were the recipients of 176 International, National and local Awards including the Australian Urban Design Award on many occasions.
Throughout your career, what has been your most favoured project that you’ve been part of? It could be based on new experiences, lessons learnt, or a project that may have catapulted your career.
“It is hard to pick a favorite. Postcode 3000 was the most successful project in changing the dynamic of the CBD taking the housing stock from 685 units in 1985 to over 65,000 today. This not only made the city a mixed use Activity Centre but turned around the loss of retail from the CBD. It created a vibrant hospitality, entertainment and cultural focus and saw Melbourne rated as one of the World’s most liveable cities.
Equally satisfying was the Grey to Green Project that has seen over 80 hectares of asphalt transformed into pedestrian and open space and it the process slowly squeeze the traffic towards a shift to public transport and cycling.
Environmentally, CH2 Australia’s first Six Star Green Star commercial office buildings set the bench mark for future Commercial offices in Melbourne. This combined with the Urban Forest Strategy and the City as a Catchment have all helped push the City to the forefront of the sustainable cities debate.
Setting the technical details for the central city, bluestone paving, street furniture and public art, when combined with the Laneways Strategy, were all an important part of building the city within its local character.
Less well known but highly satisfying were the 10 Public Private Partnerships initiated out of the team that saw City assets repurposed for improved community and financial outcomes. These include the City Square and Regent Theatre redevelopment, the QV Women’s Hospital site redevelopment, the Drill Hall affordable housing, Munro and Southern Site at QVM and the Boyd development on City Road.
All of this work was achieved by building trusted partnerships with the other inhouse teams, other levels of government, the politicians, the community and the private sector. Without these partnerships and the development of an inhouse capability none of the above would have been possible.“
What are your hobbies outside of your career profession? Tell us something personal about you and how you spend your spare time.
“I have canoed the Limpopo, Zambesi and Murry Rivers. I love sport and have played Rugby, Cricket, Base all and Soccer. I have done metal sculpture and water colours, but my passion is design.“
Carley Wright
Urbanfold, VIC (In-person Mentor)
Session One – Tuesday April 9, 2024
12:00 PM → 1:30 PM
Carley is an Associate Director at UrbanFold. Led by Rebecca Finn and Orlando Harrison, UrbanFold is a collective of people connected by purpose – to tackle complex and interesting design issues for urban environments.
Carley is an urban designer with a unique eye for understanding and capturing the collective experience of our cities and region’s public life. Trained as a photographer and urban designer, Carley is inherently interested in contributing to the improvement of all aspects of the city and is a strong advocate for designing inclusive places to encourage increased participation in public life. Her passion lies in the collaborative masterplanning process for cultural, community and civic precincts across our cities and regions. Transforming local streets into places for people and encouraging active forms of transport are also major motivators for Carley’s work. @carley.a.wright (Instagram) @urbanfold (Instagram)
Throughout your career, what has been your most favoured project that you’ve been part of? It could be based on new experiences, lessons learnt, or a project that may have catapulted your career.
“Yikes – how can you choose one project! However I do look back on the CBD masterplan for Wangaratta as an incredibly rewarding project. I love working with regional communities and the Wangaratta project was one of those projects where client, community and consultant team were aligned in realising the big opportunity to do things differently and get things done. The master plan has resulted in a range of transformative projects being delivered in and around Wangaratta’s CBD.“
What are your hobbies outside of your career profession? Tell us something personal about you and how you spend your spare time.
“I’m a photographer, so observing and capturing moments of people enjoying the places we live, work and play is something I can’t switch off! There’s nothing more satisfying than capturing a moment of ‘urban’ joy (although an afternoon spent sailing on Port Phillip Bay is pretty good too!).”
Riley Flanigan
Urbis, QLD (Online Mentor)
Session One – Tuesday April 9, 2024
12:00 PM → 1:30 PM
I’m a multidisciplinary urban designer and city strategist with expertise focused upon complex mixed use precinct master planning and strategy for precincts such as university campuses, health precincts, airports and rapid transport infrastructure precincts.
Throughout your career, what has been your most favoured project that you’ve been part of? It could be based on new experiences, lessons learnt, or a project that may have catapulted your career.
“Brisbane Airport Integrated Precinct Structure Plan because it was an incredibly complex and consequential project in bringing together all the elements that makes up a major airport precinct to create a great user experience.”
What are your hobbies outside of your career profession? Tell us something personal about you and how you spend your spare time.
“I write at theemergentcity.substack.com where I try to find interesting things to say at the intersection of urban planning, politics, culture, design and economics.”
Laurence Dragomir
Fishermans Bend Tasforce, VIC
(In-person Mentor)
Session One – Tuesday April 9, 2024
1:00 PM → 2:30 PM
I have been fortunate enough to have a career that has spanned both the private and public sectors as well as across architecture, urban design and strategic planning, and the world of a Proptech start-up. I have worked for the likes of Urbis, Kerstin Thompson Architects, Grimshaw and Urban Melbourne/Urban.com.au and have taught at Monash and Melbourne Universities.
Throughout your career, what has been your most favoured project that you’ve been part of? It could be based on new experiences, lessons learnt, or a project that may have catapulted your career.
“I don’t necessarily have a favourite but my favourites include the Wertheim Factory conversion, Marysville Police Station, Melbourne Metro, Olderfleet and Fishermans Bend.“
What are your hobbies outside of your career profession? Tell us something personal about you and how you spend your spare time.
“Random fact about me: I was a registered wedding celebrant for a time. I’m a Star Wars nerd and love going to the movies – you’ll find me at Palace Cinemas Como most weeks. I enjoy running and cycling along the Yarra River-Birrarung, going down YouTube and reddit rabbit-holes and like most people enjoy travelling and spending time with friends and family. I have a habit of quoting obscure Seinfeld, The Simpsons’ episodes (and dialogue) and I also possess a wealth of knowledge of random pop culture references and facts.“
Bianca Elenćevski
Department of Transport and Planning, VIC
(In-person Mentor)
Session One – Thursday April 11, 2024
6:30 PM → 8:00 PM
Bianca is a design strategist and urbanist. She is an expert in delivering progressive transformations to cities, streets, transport precincts and public spaces. Bianca approaches city design and strategic planning with equity and health as the principle driver of all outcomes.
Throughout your career, what has been your most favoured project that you’ve been part of? It could be based on new experiences, lessons learnt, or a project that may have catapulted your career.
“I derive alot of meaning and value from ‘smaller’ projects. Regular, small wins over the scale of the city derive huge value when multiplied.”
What are your hobbies outside of your career profession? Tell us something personal about you and how you spend your spare time.
“Running, home DIY projects, making things, drinking margaritas.”
