Charles Hoch Ph.D., Professor
Professor Hoch studies planning activity across scale and discipline. Struggling with New Left inspired criticisms of conventional rational planning at UCLA Hoch studied the ideas of American pragmatist John Dewey. Setting out to discredit pragmatic ideas at their source he became a convert. Hoch has spent three decades studying and proposing that we treat planning as an inherently pragmatic enterprise. It is not accident that he taught planning theory and the professional development seminar for 25 years. Hoch’s 1994 book, What Planners Do offered a pragmatic interpretation of the urban planning field.
In the last five years Hoch has focused on plan making. Inspired by the practical collaboration of studio projects for the Chicago Housing Authority, Village of Oak Park and the UIC Provost (campus plan) he identified gaps in planning practice and education. Hoch designed a new course, Making Plans, that set out to teach how to improve plan making skills for professional urban planners. Additionally, he turned to new research developments in Cognitive Science and Social Psychology using ideas and evidence from analysts in these fields to revise current misleading assumptions professional planners use when they make plans. Hoch has published four articles with several more in the works that represent chapters for a book entitled… Making Plans.
Hoch’s early professional experience consisted mainly of environmental land planning, but his advance study focused on social policy development. After moving to Chicago he turned his attention to the then emerging problem of urban homelessness. Working with social researchers from several non profit groups he set out to trace the roots of contemporary homelessness to the slum and ended up discovering the value of the hotel as an urban resource for the single poor. This insight set in motion several decades of research on homelessness. In 1998 Hoch joined the board of the largest (1500 units) developer of hotel like affordable supportive housing in the Midwest, Lakefront Supportive Housing. He helped plan and guide a merger with Mercy Housing, a national nonprofit housing developer in 2005. The merger means that the supportive housing model developed by Lakefront will find its way into other cities across the US.
Courses
UPP500 History and Theory of Planning
UPP501 Urban Space, Place and Institutions
UPP550 Physical Planning I
UPP552 Physical Planning Studio
UPP555 Making Plans: Course Syllabus
UPP583 Advanced Planning Theory
UPP591 Professional Development Seminar
Research
Affordable housing and homeless; planning practice; planning theory
Publications
Using Visualization Techniques for Enhancing Public Participation in Planning and Design: Process, Implementation, and Evaluation. Landscape and Urban Planning, 45, 1999.
University-Community Partnerships: Unleashing Technical and Local Expertise. Journal of Urban Technology, Vol. 6 No. 2, 1999.
Combining Digital and Traditional Visualiaztion Techniques in Community-Based Planning and Design. Journal of Digital Creativity, Vol. 10, No. 2. 1999.
View full CV
Contact
chashoch@uic.edu
Room 241 (MC 348)
312-996-2156