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Faculty

Kate Wittels

Kate Wittels is a Partner with HR&A Advisors where she advises governments, developers, and businesses on leveraging technology and forging connections to create districts, workforces, and economies that are ready for the future. From New York to Sydney, she has structured strategic plans, public-private partnerships, policies, and programs to help her clients grow tech and innovation ecosystems in cities around the world. Kate focuses on how to best shape places, train people, and deliver infrastructure to prepare today’s cities for tomorrow’s opportunities.

Working at the company, district, and city scales, Kate helps her clients leverage technology for economic development. At the company scale, Kate’s clients include some of the leading tech and creative companies including Airbnb, WeWork, LinkNYC, and the Motion Picture Association of America. Kate authored the seminal study on the New York City Tech Ecosystem, which demonstrated the size and depth of New York’s tech talent pool and supported many of the city’s tech-focused economic development initiatives. At the district scale, Kate guided the development of the Brooklyn Tech Triangle Strategic Plan which is credited with fueling Brooklyn’s growth as a tech hub and established the development framework for the Providence Innovation and Design District Framework. At the city scale, Kate supported the City University of New York’s efforts to expand the number of students working in the tech ecosystem.

Kate has also managed many of HR&A’s most complex projects including the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s 200-acre Sunnyside Yard Overbuild Feasibility study; MTA and Westfield’s public-private management partnership of the $1.4 billion Fulton Center; and David Beckham’s efforts to develop an MLS soccer stadium in Miami. Furthermore, Kate has played integral roles in other projects such as the Pittsburgh Amazon HQ2 Bid, the Brooklyn Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, the Western Queens Tech Study, Brooklyn’s Industry City and Rice University’s new innovation district.

Prior to joining HR&A, Kate served as a Director of Corporate Real Estate for Sony where she managed real estate acquisitions, dispositions, and lease activity for various business groups for a portfolio that included 20 million square feet of retail, office, industrial and manufacturing. She also attended Columbia’s Shape of Two Cities program, earned a Master of Science in Real Estate Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

Founded in 1976, HR&A Advisors is an industry-leading consulting firm providing services in real estate, economic development, and program design and implementation. HR&A has provided strategic advisory services for some of the most complex development projects across North America for over forty years and, therefore, understands the importance of linking accretive private investment with public resources to support investors and communities’ responsibilities and aspirations.

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Courses

Course	Semester	Title	Student Work	Instructor	Syllabus	Requirements & Sequence	Location & Time	Session & Points	Call No.
PLA6613‑1	Spring 2025	Built Environment Disruption: Partnerships & Urban Technology		Kate Wittels, David Gilford		Community & Economic Development	204 FAYERWEATHER TU 5-7PM	FULL SEMESTER 3 Points	10945

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Publications

Columbia Books on
Architecture and the City

RBC Case Study

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WeWork

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Western Queens Strategic Plan

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