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Established in 2005, Urbana provides specialized urban planning, historic preservation, history, architectural history and cultural resource services. We educate and engage people on the history of places and the importance of recognizing and retaining historically and architecturally significant properties. We provide regulatory support for owners and occupants of historic-era properties. Urbana delivers results with technical expertise, consensus-building, and creative solutions.
Urbana’s philosophy is to always be of service to the communities that we live, work, and play in, and by extension, to always go above-and-beyond for our customers who typically maintain dual roles as stewards of the environment and change-makers facilitating economic and community development strategies within the opportunities and constraints of the historic preservation process.
Founded in Oakland, California, our firm is now headquartered out of Arizona with full-time personnel in the West (California), Southwest (Arizona), and Midwest (Illinois) Regions. Urbana’s principal project team members maintain certification in the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), the Register of Professional Historians (RPH), and the Register of Professional Archaeologists (RPA and RA). All personnel meet The Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualification Standards for Historic Preservation Professionals in the disciplines of History, Architectural History, and Archaeology, as well as the expanded draft Professional Qualification Standards in the disciplines of Historic Preservation and Land Use/Community Planning.
Safety is an important component of every Urbana project. We maintain a safety program that includes use and maintenance of proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), including COVID-19 specific PPE, situational awareness training, pedestrian and auto-safety checks, location monitoring for field personnel, and daily on-board and off-boarding communications. We maintain General Commercial and Professional Liability coverage at $1M per occurrence and $2M aggregate, with a $4M umbrella. Urbana is certified as Small and Woman Owned Small Business by multiple agencies.