Mike Cullen

Principal at Urbacity

Greater Sydney Area

About

I am an urban planner specialising in the design and planning of integrated, mixed use centres (towns and villages). My work seeks to bring a spatial logic to econometric analysis so that centres can be places with strong cultural meaning and high levels of economic and social exchange. Specialties: Town centre planning and design, market analysis, built form analysis, walkability analysis, edge condition analysis. Economic analysis of the affect of changes to centres and the networks that feed them.

Experience

  • Principal at The Cullen FT
    2008 - Present · 18 yrs 6 mos

    We have undertaken growth strategies for over 3 million people in Australia. We craft centre strategies heavily backed by economic analysis and urban design. Developers continually deliver, and planners approve the same car-dominated centres, reducing the potential for social engagement and improved employment performance. The current practice results in a dumb economic model, with only low-wage jobs within a single building. This completely contrasts our remarkable history of centres with many buildings, most of which contain a single shop. Our studies of over 100 centres show that the old model delivered many more non-retail jobs and higher average centre wages. Urbacity's IP provides for catchments that are less than half the size required for the standard full-service stores (Coles & Woolworths), yet with supermarkets that provide the full range of stock-keeping units (SKUs) to deliver 20-minute neighbourhoods.

  • Board Member at Gungahlin Development Authority
    Mar 1998 - Jun 2004 · 6 yrs 4 mos

    Appointed by the ACT Government to sit on a board to oversee the development of a new town for 100.000 people

  • General Manager at Ibecon
    Jan 1985 - Jan 1992 · 7 yrs 1 mo

    A firm of economists and statisticians specialising in econometric modelling of urban systems