Gabriela Rendón

Gabriela Rendón
—Founder and Director

Gabriela is a Mexican-born urban planner, researcher, and educator committed to social and spatial justice based in New York City. She is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Community Development and a Faculty Fellow at the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility at The New School. Gabriela is a founding and active member of The Shape of Cities to Come Institute, Urban Front, and Cohabitation Strategies. Over the last twenty years, she has worked in urban, housing, and community-based projects commissioned by art and cultural institutions, as well as municipalities and public agencies in diverse cities in Western Europe, North America, and South America. Gabriela currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Cooper Square Community Land Trust and the Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association II.

Gabriela holds a Ph.D. in Spatial Planning and Strategy and an M.S. in Urbanism from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and a B.S. in Architecture from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico. Her expertise and research interests include community planning and design; the socio-spatial restructuring of immigrant neighborhoods; the rise and settlement of Latinx urban communities; housing and tenants’ rights; gentrification and displacement; cooperative housing models; and other collective and non-speculative housing development schemes that promote equitable development in profit-driven urban environments.

Gabriela is the author and co-editor of various publications. She is currently completing the book Defiant Neighborhoods: Rise, Revitalization, and Gentrification of Immigrant Communities in Latinx Brooklyn, which will be published by NYU Press in late 2026. She is also co-authoring the book Cohabitation Strategies: Thoughts and Visions for the Co-Production of Social Space, which will be published by ORO Editions, also in late 2026.