Jim Richards

James Richards' is a national award-winning designer, writer and illustrator whose work has creatively spanned town planning, urban design and landscape architecture for 30 years on projects in 16 states. He is a co-founder and principal of TOWNSCAPE Inc., and has led successful design initiatives for walkable downtowns, new town centers, transit-oriented developments, urban villages, corporate campuses, greenway networks, freeway corridors and heritage regions.  Richards’  directed the planning and design of many the firm’s award-winning projects, including the Austin Town Lake Comprehensive Plan, the corporate headquarters campuses for Exxon Corporation and The JCPenney Company, and the LBJ Heartland Tourism Plan while at JJR and is the 2008 recipient of ASLA’s Bradford Williams Medal for his writings on urban placemaking and visual thinking. He has served on the professional advisory boards and as visiting lecturer and jury critic at numerous universities, and has designed and taught coursework at the graduate level. His projects and teaching are enriched by extensive travel, having studied and photographed cities and projects in 27 countries throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

Jim is a founding member of the North Texas Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute, the American Planning Association, and the American Society of Landscape Architects, whose Texas Chapter awarded him its highest honor, the Distinguished Member Award, in 2001.