- Connie Chung joins MICD’s 78th National Session in Boston for Visionary Urban Leadership
- A Conversation with Connie Chung, HR&A Los Angeles’ Managing Partner
- Reimagining Public Space in Los Angeles: HR&A Supports a Bold Vision for Public Space Reform
- The Future of LA’s Parks: A 15-Year Roadmap for Funding, Access, and Growth
A native Angeleno and Managing Partner for HR&A’s Los Angeles office, Connie brings an interdisciplinary lens to her work in California and across the country, leveraging her expertise in planning, public realm development and governance, climate strategy, business planning, and public-private partnerships to help clients improve the urban fabric and the lives of their communities.
Over the course of Connie’s career, she has acted as a catalyst and connector for various disciplines to come together and tackle complicated challenges at the urban scale. Connie helps clients and project teams make data-informed decisions about design, planning, development, and programming. Alongside this analytical rigor, she is also a creative problem-solver who challenges multi-disciplinary teams to create solutions that are greater than the sum of their parts. She understands placemaking and how to develop culturally resonant, economically sound built environments and open spaces that serve their community. Whether it’s envisioning a new park that will transform an underserved community, helping a client understand the economic impact of building affordable housing on their land, or studying the climate and equity impacts of the urban tree canopy in a city as large and diverse as Los Angeles — it’s Connie’s collaborative, interdisciplinary thinking that consistently delivers results for her clients.
Connie advises public, private, and nonprofit landowners on planning and development issues, with an approach that combines rigorous analysis and a talent for collaborating in multidisciplinary environments. Her recent work with museums, community college districts, and nonprofit land owners has focused on helping these clients understand various development scenarios. Clients often come to her with questions like: “We have land we want to build on, but we don’t know what kind of development will be most successful in our neighborhood,” or “Should we build affordable rental housing on our parking lot?” Connie helps these clients answer these questions through rigorous analysis to make informed decisions that will serve their long-term goals as well as the surrounding community.
As a recognized leader in open space, parks, and public realm development, Connie has led programming, business planning, and governance strategies for major park projects across the country. This work includes award-winning projects like the Atlanta BeltLine, Seattle Waterfront, Silver Lake Reservoir, and the Lawn on D where she often guided clients through initial visioning phases, funding and governance strategy, design and construction, and finally helping oversee the launch of programming and management.
Deeply committed to climate resiliency and public green space, Connie’s work includes thinking about natural resources and sustainability at the macro scale. She works with municipal and nonprofit clients like the Atlanta Parks Department, LA County Parks, and the LA Urban Forest to develop funding and financing strategies for investment in green infrastructure and municipal agencies.
Connie holds a Master in City Planning with a Certificate of Urban Design from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics with a minor in French from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Director of Planning at the Alliance for Downtown New York
Projects
HR&A Advisors serves as Sector Investment Coordinator (SIC) and strategic program manager for the California Jobs First Catalyst Program across Los Angeles County, Kern County, and the North San Joaquin Valley. Working alongside regional conveners, fiscal agents, and cross-sector coalitions, we have helped deploy Catalyst funding, operationalize regional economic plans, and advance industry-led initiatives that position each region for inclusive growth in a carbon-neutral economy.
HR&A Advisors is developing a preliminary funding strategy for the Santa Monica Airport Conversion, a transformative project set to repurpose the 192-acre site when airport operations cease in 2028. Working alongside lead consultant Sasaki, HR&A's financial and implementation frameworks will position the City to maximize the site's redevelopment potential while addressing community priorities for this significant civic asset.
HR&A Advisors developed an operating and funding strategy for Manresa Island Park, a proposed new park and community hub that will transform a 130+-acre brownfield site on the Connecticut coast. HR&A’s work advanced the ambitious vision of owners Austin and Allison McChord to convert the waterfront site, home to a former power plant facility, into a regional recreational, ecological, and cultural hub with commanding views of Long Island Sound.
HR&A advised The Trust for Public Land (TPL) on two strategic research initiatives that strengthened cities' abilities to leverage parks for economic development. The research illuminated the economic value of quality open spaces in five different U.S. cities and provided parks departments with implementable regulatory frameworks to secure development-driven funding, ultimately enhancing TPL's advocacy toolkit for municipal partners nationwide.
As a member of a multidisciplinary team led by Sasaki, HR&A developed a strategic business plan guiding the creation of Arboretum San Antonio, a new 200-acre immersive nature-based experience rooted in the city's Southside. Our market analysis, strategic planning, and revenue modeling helped ASA establish organizational direction and financial sustainability for this transformative cultural amenity and helped inform Sasaki’s Master Planning process and programmatic decisions.
HR&A helped the Hilton Foundation refine its Los Angeles strategy to maximize the impact of over $300 million in regional investments across early childhood development, foster youth, opportunity youth, and homelessness initiatives. Our comprehensive socioeconomic analysis, peer foundation research, and strategic facilitation positioned the Foundation to adopt a more coordinated place-based approach that enhances local impact.
In 2024, Los Angeles County voters approved Measure A, a historic half-cent sales tax generating over $380 million annually for affordable housing and homelessness prevention. HR&A developed the inaugural Expenditure Plan and Regional Coordination Plan for the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA), creating frameworks that enable 13 regional agencies to deploy this permanent funding source while maintaining regional alignment toward the goal of producing 9,000 new affordable homes over the next five years.
