Wendell Joseph

Wendell Joseph has a passion for creating compelling narratives and intentional frameworks for the growth and wellbeing of cities and communities through collaboration and facilitation. As a visionary and a systems thinker, he always aims to provide thoughtful and practical solutions to complex urban and social issues by understanding local and historical contexts, centering mutual learning and collective decision-making, creating compelling narratives and intentional frameworks, and nurturing spaces where people can honestly discuss their past, present, and future.

The foundations of his professional philosophy and planning theory are based on “establishing the planning continuum”, “creating townhalls for venting”, “exploring the binaries of growth vs development”, and the core belief that “land has a memory, and people embody that memory”. Wendell’s core belief is that “planning” is a byproduct of community – which is continuously being (re)defined – of interdependent humans beings sharing time and space together, whose symbiotic relationship with land is not fixed but is always in flux, resulting in a built form that must be reflective of values that prioritize stewardship over ownership.

He holds a Master of Architecture degree from Andrews University and a Master of Urban Planning degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He previously worked as a Project Planner at Toole Design Group, an Associate and Urban Planner at Sasaki Associates, and as a Neighborhood Planner with the City of Cambridge. He has also been a panelist and moderator for conferences and seminars, appeared on several podcasts, participated in design reviews and juries, and taught at the Boston Architectural College.

Currently, Wendell is Director, Pre-Leasing and Planning at Graffito SP, a retail real estate advisory and investment firm that excels at the intersection of master planning, retail leasing, and branding. He leads pre-leasing and planning initiatives to expand and deepen Graffito’s work in the critical ground floor activation strategies of mixed-use development projects.