Chris Riale is an Associate with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) LLP in NYC, and leads SOM’s City Design Practice for the East Coast studios. His work focuses on transformative projects that bring together good urban design and transportation infrastructure to create vibrant and sustainable urban environments.He has over 13 years of experience in urban design, development master planning, transit-oriented development (TOD), land use planning, zoning revision, and context-sensitive transportation design for public sector and private developer clients.

Prior to joining SOM, Chris gained an extensive urban design and planning portfolio having worked for firms in Boston, Chicago, New York City, and Providence. He has completed numerous site-specific and districtwide redevelopment plans at a wide variety of scales to determine long-term development potential under various programmatic, urban design, and zoning scenarios, which have led to successful real estate marketing and development of subject sites. In addition to urban design and planning, Chris has authored citywide zoning rewrites and form-based codes that have helped cities establish progressive land use and design regulations. Chris earned his Bachelor of Art (BA) in Urban Studies and Planning from SUNY Albany and a Master of City and Regional Planning (MCRP) from Rutgers University. He is a member of the American Planning Association and American Institute of Certified Planners.