Jennifer Keesmaat — The Keesmaat Group.

“One of the top 100 urbanists of all time.”

— Planetizen

TED Talks

Walk to School

Taxes, Democracy and Our Shared Interest

Own Your City

Podcasts

Jennifer Keesmaat, MES, RPP, MCIP

for speaking inquiries, please click here

Jennifer Keesmaat is an urban planner passionate about creating places where people flourish. Named one of the “most powerful people in Canada” by Macleans, one of the “most influential” by Toronto Life, and one of the top Women of Influence in Canada, she spent five years as Toronto’s Chief City Planner, where she was celebrated for her forward thinking and collaborative approach to city-building.

A Distinguished Visitor in Residence Emeritus at the University of Toronto, Keesmaat continues to share her vision for cities of the future, and her belief in the importance of public sector leadership through a variety of publications including The Guardian, Macleans, Foreign Affairs, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and on her two podcasts, Invisible City and Within Reach.

Keesmaat is on the Advisory Board of the Urban Land Institute, Toronto, and is appointed to the International Panel of Experts, Singapore Urban Redevelopment Authority. Jennifer is on the President's Planning and Growth Advisory Board for Ohio State University.

Jennifer was a member of the National Taskforce on Housing Supply that produced a landmark policy document to inform housing development at all levels of government, The BluePrint for More and Better Housing 2024; and In May of 2024 Keesmaat was appointed to the National Housing Council by The Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities.

Over the past fifteen years, as a founding partner of the Office for Urbanism and subsequently Dialog, Keesmaat worked in municipalities across Canada and around the world on urban design guidelines, official plan reviews and strategies for creating dense, walkable cities. Her planning practice is characterized by an emphasis on collaborations across sectors, and broad engagement with municipal staff, councils, developers, business leaders, NGO’s, and residents associations. Keesmaat has been recognized for her expertise in transit planning, heritage preservation, strategy development, communications, sustainable economic development and the creation of walkable, complete communities.

In 2018, Keesmaat ran for Mayor in the City of Toronto on a progressive, visionary platform that included addressing the housing crisis by building at scale on city-owned land and implementing a Rent-to-Own program; neighbourhood-based crime prevention through the development of Community Wellbeing Plans for each neighbourhood in the city; redesigning city streets to prioritize vulnerable users such as children, seniors, pedestrian and cyclists; the development of five Cultural Hubs to instigate renewal outside of the core; and the tearing down of the Gardiner Expressway to build a new walkable, transit-oriented waterfront neighbourhood community.

Keesmaat has a Combined Honours degree in Philosophy and English from the University of Western Ontario, and a Masters in Environmental Studies, Politics and Planning, from York University. As a Registered Professional Planner, her work has been repeatedly recognized by professional associations, including as the recipient of the 2016 President’s Award of Excellence, from the Canadian Institute of Planners; the 2016 Bryden Alumni Award, York University, the 2017 City Builders Award from EDIT/the Design Exchange; the International Placemaking Award, City of Lyon, France 2017; and most recently, the 2019 The Edmund N. Bacon Award from the Center for Architecture and Design, Philadelphia.

Her award-winning and widely acclaimed podcast can be found at invisiblecitypodcast. In it, she talks about a broad range of future city and technological topics, including access to food security in The Cauliflower Crisis, how to plan for autonomous vehicles in The Future of the City, The Future of the Car; and the opportunity of raising kids in dense, urban environments in 5 Kids, One Condo. Jennifer also brings light to the biggest challenges facing cities in her Within Reach podcast, in partnership with Newstalk 1010.

Keesmaat is President and CEO of Collecdev Markee, developing new communities across the GTA as sustainable, liveable places that prioritize access to high quality housing for all.

for speaking inquiries, please click here