With a focus on urban renewal legislation, Innes has a deep understanding of municipal planning
Harriman and The Cecil Group, a newly merged architecture, engineering urban design, planning, and landscape architecture firm with offices in Portland and Auburn, Maine, Manchester, New Hampshire, and Boston, Mass., are pleased to announce the promotion of Emily Keys Innes, LEED AP ND to the position of Senior Urban Planner. In this position, she will continue to be responsible for managing the firm’s more complex planning projects and will help guide the firm’s integration of planning into the newly merged firm. In addition, Emily recently earned her AICP certification. Offered through the American Planning Association (APA), AICP is the only nationwide, independent verification of a planner’s qualifications.
Through its Boston-based urban design and planning studio, Harriman has provided planning and design solutions for clients nationwide, from individual sites to large communities. The firm values community planning as a special opportunity to build public and political consensus through creation of shared vision, while at the same time building the required capacity and support for actual implementation.
“It’s rare to find a planner who is so knowledgeable and expert in the complex regulations and technical world of planning and who also has extraordinary communication and consensus building skills in working with the full range of participants in community planning projects,” said Steve Cecil, AIA, ASLA, founding principal of The Cecil Group, Inc. and now a principal and owner at Harriman.
Emily’s focus at The Cecil Group has been on the use of urban renewal legislation to create tools for the redevelopment of New England downtowns. As a ten-year member of the Town of Milton, Mass., Planning Board, she developed an enhanced understanding of municipal process and planning challenges; she uses this knowledge as she works with communities to address future conditions, including changing demographics and economic conditions, climate change, and sea level rise.
Emily enjoys working with communities to help them define their responses to complex interactions among local desires, urban design, market realities, and zoning requirements. Over the course of her five years with The Cecil Group, Emily has worked on urban renewal projects in Lawrence and Salem, Mass. and Norwalk, Conn.; urban renewal strategies for New Bedford, Mass. and West Warwick, Rhode Island; design guidelines and village district zoning for municipalities in Conn.; and land use planning projects for a range of private clients.
Emily holds a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds a Certificate in Advanced Rendering from the Boston Architectural College, and has done graduate work at the Boston Architectural College. Emily is a member of the American Planning Association (APA) and an Associate Member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI). She has participated in ULI’s Technical Assistance Programs in Saugus and Leominster, Mass. and is a frequent presenter at regional planning conferences.
About Harriman and The Cecil Group
Harriman and The Cecil Group are an integrated, full-service practice in architecture, engineering, urban design, planning and landscape architecture. The partnership is dedicated to excellent multi-disciplinary client service that directly applies the talents and experience of our principals and creative professionals. We are both well-established and successful firms with a legacy of providing clients with thoughtful solutions through distinctive design and innovative strategies. The combined entity is a stronger, more flexible and robust firm dedicated to enhancing the built and natural environment. Please visit the firm’s websites for a video that describes how Harriman and The Cecil Group are coming together to enhance their integrated project approach.
