INFORMED OBSERVATION
Metrocology’s skill set is grounded in formulating resilient solutions to challenging conditions employing three tracks of work:
Master Planning, Comprehensive Planning and Site Design for the development and redevelopment of land, infrastructure, social/cultural assets and natural resources based on Full Spectrum Community Development.
Strategic Planning, Visioning and Town Whispering via the creation of alternative organizations and structures, such as The Office for Civic Investment, that are charged with streamlining the processes of development and redevelopment for successful delivery of agreed upon goals and objectives across the short, mid, and long terms.
Code Writing to crafting and calibrating land management ordinances, zoning and development agreements to successfully implement plans.
Metrocology delivers work using multiple methods ranging from long-term client engagement, to focused short term workshops. These can be open events with media coverage, or private processes, involving only the immediate team.
ORCHESTRATING THE HOLISTIC APPROACH
Demetri Baches, AICP, CNU-A is an expert urbanist. He is the founder and principal of United States-based Metrocology, Inc., a Strategic Planning, Visioning, Urban Design and Development consultancy established in 2010. His “town-whispering” approach to analysis and design offers government agencies, private sector and not-for-profit clients a comprehensively managed suite of services, focusing on the needs of their specific project, town, or city.
A member of the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) since its founding, Demetri is a planner by training with over twenty years of international urban design and coding experience in both the public and private sectors. He began his career in 1992, as the first Planning Director for The City of Belmont NC. During his tenure, he developed and implemented the first Form-Based Zoning Ordinance for an existing municipality in the United States, in conjunction with consultants Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ), joining the firm in 1995.
During his tenure as a Director at DPZ, Demetri was responsible for selecting the Firm's work and creating systems to distribute its tools and methods to planning and development professionals around the world. He managed and participated in over 100 projects in the United States and overseas. Demetri co-founded the The Fund for New Urbanism as a means to finance development opportunities and directly control key aspects of DPZ’s design approach. He led the Firm’s efforts to prepare and distribute the SmartCode, the first template form based code available to muncipalities. He also arranged partnering opportunities with builders and developers to showcase DPZ’s proprietary housing plans, from affordable to live work.
Demetri launched DPZ’s first international office in Manila, The Philippines in 1999. Demetri then founded DPZ Pacific, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2004, focusing exclusively on planning projects in Australia, Asia/Pacific and the Middle East. There he employed and advanced the innovative design techniques of DPZ, including Transect Based Planning and Smartcoding, which he had participated in the development of during his tenure at the DPZ head office in Miami.
Following the evolution of the real estate industry over the course of the past decade, Demetri’s extensive experience in urban planning and his passion to see communities thrive drove him to establish his own firm, one with the skills to “discover” the value of projects and initiatives based on the inherent strengths of their surrounding community. He founded Metrocology as a vehicle to combine urban design services with community based asset development and investment building.
Metrocology’s work engages across the full spectrum of project and civic interests, from economic and environmental to social and cultural. Demetri identifies how these interests can be aligned to implement opportunities for development and redevelopment aimed at leveraging the highest project value and best quality of life for local citizens. The processes and practices required to recognize, embrace and implement Full Spectrum Community Development are the basis for his upcoming book Top Tier Towns: The Six Habits of Highly Successful Communities.
Metrocology is comprised of a Core Team of highly experienced professionals who operate on the cutting edge of design, business and social trends with a collective experience totaling roughly a century of project management and observation. Together they have managed and participated on planning and design projects across North America, Central America, Europe, The Middle East, Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand
In addition to the Core Team, Metrocology has assembled a Global Network of affiliated professional partners who are leaders in their respective fields. These include: Architecture, Civil Engineering, Zoning + Building Code Analysis, Critical Infrastructure Assessment and Planning, Environmental Preservation, Historic Preservation, Pro-forma Analysis, Market Trends & Drivers Assessment, Sales & Marketing Strategies, Governmental & Public Relations, Fiscal Planning & Funding.
Metrocology’s Core Team and their Global Network of affiliated professionals contribute a comprehensive array of skills that can be engaged at any time during a project’s lifecycle. With these resources, Metrocology can provide clients with access to an “a la carte” menu of services from the foremost innovators in the planning, development and marketing industries, marrying specific expertise with the unique requirements of each project.
Demetri lectures internationally to government agencies and developers on planning, marketing and sustainable urban design and is routinely invited to speak at conferences, forums and universities on best practices in planning and urbanism