Education: B.Arch., Cooper Union

Background: Maurice D. Cox is an architectural educator, urban designer and City Counselor for the City of Charlottesville. He is a native of New York City, where he received a B. Arch. from the Cooper Union School of Architecture in 1983. He taught for six years as an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Syracuse University's Italian Program in Florence, Italy. His teaching in Florence was accompanied by ten years of professional practice in partnership with Giovanna Galfione, focusing on urban design issues. Since arriving at the University of Virginia in 1993 as an Assistant Professor of Architecture, he has coordinated the required undergraduate introductory design studio and has taught various graduate seminars focusing on community-based, collaborative processes of urban place making. In 1996 he co-founded the architectural practice of RBGC Architecture, Research and Urbanism with partners Craig Barton, Giovanna Galfione and Martha Rowen in Charlottesville, Virginia. Civic activism and community service characterize all aspects of his teaching, professional practice and academic scholarship, and he is widely known as an advocate for citizen participation in the important planning decisions that affect a community's life. He was elected to the Charlottesville City Council in 1996. He serves on the Charlottesville Housing and Redevelopment Authority as a transportation representative to the Metropolitan Planning Organization.