Paul Bauknight

Paul Bauknight is the founding GGN Spatial Justice and Social Equity Fellow in Residence. Working in community-based design and development for over 30 years, Paul is passionately committed to exploring the intersection of social, cultural, economic, and spatial systems to create solutions that are equitable, steeped in place, and benefit each community. In his role as Founder and President of the Center for Transformative Urban Design, Paul provides a creative, national platform for the equitable development of cities, neighborhoods, and the public realm. The former Project Implementation Director for the Minneapolis Parks Foundation, Paul advanced the Foundation’s programming through his facilitation of the social, cultural, environmental, institutional, and physical systems that contribute to the development, stewardship, and advocacy of parks and the public realm.

Paul is the co-chair for the Equity in Place committee of Reimagining the Civic Commons, a national learning network of cities using civic assets as platforms for social and economic change. He is also the inaugural Civic Scholar in Residence at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design for the 2021-23 school years, where he will focus on the intersection of physical and social/political systems. Paul founded the Urban Design Lab, which at one time was the largest minority-owned design firm in the state, with 16 employees. Paul has held leadership positions at Urban Homeworks, A MN Without Poverty, and The African American Men Project. A senior affiliate at the Minnesota Design Center, he also serves on the Friends of the Mississippi River and The Givens Foundation boards.