Architectural designers examining timber facade samples and drawings at a large pine worktable in a sunlit modern studio

About Urbanform Planning & Design Studio

Our Mission & Values

At UrbanForm, we’re dedicated to the public interest and genuinely enthusiastic about the planning process, yes, really. We believe good planning can make everyday life better: safer streets, stronger neighborhoods, clearer policies, and communities that work better for the people in them.

We’re also artists at heart. We love making things make sense, and we love making them look good while they do it. That goes for plans, policies, graphics, public-facing documents, and the places where we live and work. Our approach blends substance and style: rigorous thinking, clear communication, and a design sensibility that helps ideas connect with the people they’re meant to serve.

Detailed basswood architectural model resting on a concrete desk beside hand-sketched site plans and tracing paper

Our Background

About UrbanForm

We’ve spent more time in land use and transportation planning than some people spend on Netflix, which is saying something. After years of navigating plans, policies, proposals, and the occasional alphabet soup of agency acronyms, we’ve made it our mission to help communities become more livable, functional, and thoughtfully designed.

We love the planning process, even the messy parts. Especially the messy parts, honestly. UrbanForm brings a practical, creative, and public-minded approach to every project, helping clients turn complicated urban challenges into clear next steps, strong deliverables, and meaningful outcomes.

If your team needs thoughtful strategy, strong writing, sharp analysis, and a little planning magic, we’d love to talk.

Meet the Team

Julia Marshall

Julia is an urban planner, designer, technical writer, and all-around translator of big ideas into clear, useful deliverables. She brings a solutions-oriented mindset, a sharp eye for policy, and a talent for turning broad, complicated scopes into focused documents that actually make sense to the people reading them.

With experience in planning, proposal development, grant writing, outreach, and visual communication, Julia is especially skilled at connecting strategy, story, and design. She has worked with private, state, and local government clients and brings both analog and digital engagement tools to the table, because sometimes the best outreach method is high-tech and sometimes it’s a well-placed marker and a good conversation.

She’s also an artist and designer with more than 12 years of experience, which explains why she cares deeply about both how things work and how they look.

Who We Are

Kate Múspell, AICP

Kate is a certified planner with a strong focus on multimodal transportation planning and policy, and the kind of person who can talk about freight, transit, safety, and corridor planning without making your eyes glaze over.

With over a decade of experience, Kate has led and supported a wide range of projects including transit studies, grant writing, neighborhood and corridor planning, comprehensive and regional planning, downtown revitalization, freight planning, and long-range transportation efforts. Their background spans everything from vulnerable road user safety to solar energy policy, giving them a broad and practical perspective on how infrastructure, policy, and place all fit together.

Kate brings strategic thinking, technical depth, and a calm hand to complex projects, along with a commitment to work that serves the public well and moves ideas from concept to implementation.

Core Pillars

How we approach every project

Four fundamental commitments guide our studio culture, client interactions, and planning practices.

Collaboration

Clarity

Creativity

Thoughtful Solutions

We work closely with clients and communities to build better outcomes together.

We turn complex planning challenges into communication people can actually use.

We bring fresh thinking and strong design to work that deserves both.

We focus on practical, well-considered ideas that fit the place and the purpose.

Start a conversation

Let's shape your next space together

Whether planning a small area, commercial corridor, or comprehensive long-range plan, our team welcomes early conversations.