clair enlow
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  • portfolio
    • portfolio
    • archive
  • about me
    • about
    • resume
    • credits & honors
  • contact
  • subscribe
    • urban stew
    • post alley

clair enlow
​A freelance journalist and opinion writer specializing
in urban design, infrastructure and environmental policy


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professional ethics - without fear or favor

I do not comment or report on a person or subject with which I have recently (within a year) engaged as a writer-for-hire.
I do not contract for services or accept favors or privileges concerning a project, property or owner I’ve covered as a journalist, without first disclosing that coverage.

career history

1999-Present: Freelance writer, columnist for The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.
1990-1999: Architecture and Engineering Editor at The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce, Freelance journalist.

​writing and editing history

Contributor to Post Alley, Seattle online magazine of critical opinions, 2019-present

Contributor to Crosscut, Northwest news and opinion blog, 2017-2019

Columnist for The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce, “Design Perspectives,” a monthly critical column devoted to emerging issues and timely themes in architecture, urban design and policies affecting the built environment (1999-2019).

Writer for ULI Seattle, including reports for regional Technical Assistance Panels (2008-present).

Writer of numerous online development case studies for the Urban Land Institute (2001-2009) and contributor to ULI books including: 
  • The Residential Development Handbook, Third Edition (2004)
  • Developing Condominiums: Successful Strategies (2006)
  • Creating Walkable Places: Compact, Mixed-Use Solutions (2006)
  • Developing Housing for the Workforce: A Toolkit (2007)
  • Getting Density Right: Tools for Creating Vibrant Compact Development (2008)

Writer of a series of online case studies for LEED certified design and construction projects of the City of Seattle (2009).

Author of Living Places: The Landscape Architecture of Jones & Jones, SPACEMAKER (2006), and introduction to LMN Architects: Design in the Public Realm, L’ARCA EDIZIONI (May 2003).

Contributing editor for Landscape Architecture Magazine (2002-2010).

Writer of over 1500 news and feature articles and critical reviews. In addition to The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce (djc.com), byline has appeared Pacific Magazine, World Architecture (London), ARCADE, Planning Magazine, Architecture Week (architectureweek.com), The Washington Bar Journal, The Puget Sound Business Journal, The Portland Daily Journal of Commerce, Architectural Record, Landlines (the Lincoln Land Institute), and Public Art Review (1987 to the present).

Editor of “Place in Print,” a 10-year retrospective of publishing Northwest architecture, ARCADE magazine, a special edition of the magazine and author of cover article “Ideas, Events Acts: Buildings as News” (1999).

Editor of Landscape Northwest, a 20-30 page, yearly tabloid-format newspaper insert published by the Journal of Commerce and devoted to news and features about landscape architecture, (1994 through 2003); and A/E Perspectives, a 36-48 page Journal of Commerce insert section featuring news of the design industry in the Northwest, (1996 to 2003).

Author of AIA Seattle: The First 100 Years, published by AIA Seattle, a history of architects, architecture and advocacy on the built environment and the Northwest, a compilation of 10 articles first run in The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce. The project was a collaboration with historian Thomas Veith (1996).

Contributor to Observer Observed, a national anthology of architectural writing published by the American Institute of Architects (1992).

lectures and presentations

Panel moderator, NAIOP conference, Four Seasons Olympic Hotel, 2015
Speaker, NIAUSI: “The Dark Heart of Development in Italy,” 2010
Speaker and panel moderator: “Living Places: The Architecture and Landscape Architecture of Jones & Jones,” Henry Gallery, University of Washington, 2006
Guest speaker: “In Search of Story” Fellows Series, AIA Seattle, 2002
Panelist: “Views on Views,” Seattle Architectural Foundation, May 2001
Moderator: “Meet the Press,” AIA Seattle, November, 2000
Speaker: “When Past and Future Meet on the Street, What Do They Talk About,” AIA Seattle Preservation 2000
Panelist: “Meet the Press,” AIA Seattle, October, 1995
Panelist: “Communicating your Work,” The American Public Works Association Convention, 1994
Panelist: “How to Get Published,” the Society for Marketing Professional Services, 1993
Guest lecturer: “Modern and Post-modern Architecture,” The Evergreen State College, Olympia, 1991

honors and fellowships

Lincoln Institute Journalists Fellowship, 2002
Loeb Fellowship, Harvard University, 2001-2002
American Society of Landscape Architects, Washington Chapter, first President’s Award for Service to the Profession, 2003
Honorary Member, AIA Washington Council, 1996
Honorary Member, AIA Seattle, 1995
Excellence in Journalism Award, American Society of Civil Engineers, 1994
Third place, Best Business Story, The Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, 1993

professional activities

Participant in numerous panel critiques at the UW College of Architecture and Urban Planning, 2006-2009
Juror for numerous professional awards programs for chapters of the American Institute of Architects and for professional engineering associations, 1995-1999
Editorial Committee member, ARCADE, a magazine of design criticism, 1993 – 2008
Advisory Board member, AIA Seattle, 2000
Advisory Board member, space.city, 1997

education and continuing education

Lincoln Institute Journalists Fellowship, 2002
Harvard University, Loeb Fellowship, 2001
The Poynter Institute Writers Workshops, Portland and Seattle, 1994-1999, and Boston, 2001
Stanford University Alumni Programs, Palo Alto, Stanford Professional Publishing Course, 1997
Parsons Institute, New York, Course work and continuing education in Environmental Design, 1980
Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, B.A. English, 1975

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