Timbre Consultants Inc. is a network of urban planners and designers, organizers, and public affairs professionals. With experience advising community-based organizations, anchor institutions, elected officials and business leadership, we seek to work with those aspiring to make change and willing to do the hard work to make it happen.
Services
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Land use planning
Neighborhood planning
Stakeholder engagement and convening
Anchor investment and engagement strategies
Local and inclusive procurement strategies
Community schools
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Demographic and socioeconomic analysis
Market research and analysis
Legislative and policy research
Land use and zoning analysis
Community needs assessments
Urban trend analysis
Design and user research
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Visioning and concept development
Strategic Planning
Program design and implementation
Communications strategy
Social media strategy
Government affairs strategy
Project briefing and marketing
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Coalition building
Outreach
Advocacy
Political strategy and Message Development
Public relations
Stakeholder mapping
Workshop facilitation: collaborative design, public feedback
Selected Projects
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Hedgework is an urban landscape intervention that takes the form of a sentient hedgerow. It is a community of native plants and environmental sensors that create a biodiverse habitat that supports the butterflies, bees, birds and squirrels that inhabit it, while engaging the community members, workers, cyclists, pedestrians and others that surround it. But the essential and unique transformational relationship the Hedgerow creates is the real conversation between human and more-than-human stakeholders. Its infrastructure helps to generate a series of feedback loops that provide many opportunities for playful response and interaction. Hedgework seasonally transforms over the life-cycle of its installation, growing, generating data, building knowledge and writing a soundtrack that reflects the climate and disposition of the site. Hedgework was commissioned by the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC)
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BNMC is a 120-acre medical campus with 11 member institutions. In 2018, the BNMC was one of 44 organizations nationwide, and one of four organizations in New York State to receive a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Local Food Promotion Program Grant to create a culture of healthy food practices and increase local food procurement.
Timbre was hired as part of a multi-disciplinary team to help develop a strategy for the BNMC Farm to Hospital program and increase the purchase of locally and regionally produced foods by the healthcare institutions on campus. A rigorous process of research, stakeholder engagement and organizational analysis resulted in recommendations for program implementation to be delivered through new communications, procedures and spaces.
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Timbre Consultants has been engaged by the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus to implement healthy retail and workplaces programs. The team is working in partnership with the Buffalo Public Schools and Go Bike Buffalo under the NYS Department of Health’s Creating Healthy Schools and Community (CHSC) Initiative. CHSC is a 5-year coordinated, multi-sector initiative designed to increase demand for and access to healthy, affordable foods and opportunities for daily physical activity in high-need school districts and their associated communities.
Timbre Consultants is currently working to design new and healthy retail models for the City of Buffalo, including healthy corner stores and mobile markets, and supporting their implementation by developing sustainable partnerships, programming, communication strategies, and the tools and technical assistance needed to support retailers. Healthy workplace programs are being piloted within institutions representing a range of sectors and sizes (e.g. hospitals, government agencies, private corporations) and are designed to change food procurement processes and standards while increasing staff awareness of and access to local food and healthy eating practices. The retail and workplace programs will be situated in or be connected to targeted Buffalo neighborhoods in conjunction with schools and complete streets planning activities as part of a holistic approach to place-based health and wellness.
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In support of the application for financial assistance from the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency, retained by Shore Road-Long Beach Superblock, LLC, Timbre provided services to the Long Island Center for Socio-economic Development to prepare a report on the projected economic impact generated in the City of Long Beach and the County of Nassau by the construction in the City of Long Beach
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As the consultants for the Rise Up for Climate Justice (Western New York) campaign launch, Timbre Consultants were charged with three primary goals: to brand and position this new environmental group as a “hub” for Western New York’s environmental community to organize around, to promote “The Western New York Climate Justice Pledge” and program a kick-off rally in downtown Buffalo.
To meet these goals, Timbre launched a full campaign that included targeted and boots-on-the-ground community outreach, engagement and activation; message development and branding; an owned, paid and earned media strategy which included web, print and radio while targeting and developing relationships with members of the press; building a sustainable and robust social media presence; conducting media training and providing interviews with members of the press and publications and; programming and day-of coordination for the rally.
With a narrow window of time the rally and kick-off was a success. There were an estimated 400 people in attendance, and over 30 diverse groups (from labor unions to faith-based organizations) participated. Our social media presence leading up to the campaign engaged with 16k unique users on Facebook 43k Twitter users. And media outlets WBFO / NPR, the Buffalo News, The Public and Time Warner Cable covered Rise Up and the rally text goes here
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The Western New York Environmental Alliance (WNYEA) is an independent, member-run organization. With more than 100 member organizations, WNYEA’s mission is to mobilize change through planning, collective action and collaboration, in order to ensure sustainable, thriving ecosystems and communities in Western New York.
For the past 9 years, WYNEA has held a Congress in Buffalo bringing together the leading voices in the Western New York community around pressing environmental issues. In 2015, with the nations of the world addressing climate issues at the Paris Climate Summit, WNYEA sought to lead a crucial discussion on climate change, solutions and the implications for climate justice in Western New York. Timbre was hired not only to manage the promotion, programming and planning of the Congress, but to also to increase attendance and diversity among panelists and attendees and to a advance a solutions-oriented discussion on climate change.
Timbre successfully met these goals. We rebranded the Congress, “Taking Climate Action: The Future of Western New York,” in an effort to emphasize the collective interest in climate change. Event attendance was at 200+, exceeding expectations and standards set by past years. The hallways were filled with local environmental groups and innovators. Panelists and, through direct engagement with the Greater Buffalo community, attendees represented the diversity of the region. And, in addition press coverage of the event, we reached over 13k people on social media.
Perspective
Cities and towns are rapidly changing, as are the technologies we use to measure, predict, design and build with. In the race to ride this momentum we see public agencies, private developers and service providers alike favoring technocratic, big data-driven and large-scale solutions. Something very important is being lost in the shuffle: the existing knowledge, character and strengths embedded in our communities. We believe in planning practices that are participatory and targeted and we work to advance initiatives that demonstrate creative ways of working together, that are designed with empathy and that respond to real community needs.Whether through research, project planning or public relations, we know how to work with the public, private and institutional stakeholders that can influence a project’s outcome. We guide our clients through complex planning processes - from conception to implementation - so that the project vision is met and is delivered within budget.Team
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Principal
Antonina is an urbanist committed to creating new models for economically and environmentally sustainable development. She is interested in participatory planning and place-based interventions that challenge traditional planning processes and frameworks in order to creatively meet broad policy goals. Her professional experience includes non-profit program management, design strategy, public policy research, user research, teaching and environmental impact analysis.
Antonina has worked with a range of stakeholders including government agencies, elected officials, community-based organizations, business leaders, cultural and higher education institutions, designers and educators. She holds a master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Principal
Brad is an urban planner and urban designer with experience in disaster recovery, resiliency, and infrastructure planning. He has worked with the New York State Governor’s Office as well as energy providers in Puerto Rico, focusing on project management, smart growth initiatives, and ensuring compliance with federal funding programs including CDBG-DR, FEMA-PA, and ARPA. Brad also has political urban development policy and communications experience, having served as staff within the federal legislature, the Oregon Legislative Assembly, and the United States Department of Defense.
He holds a Master’s in Urban Planning from Hunter College and a Master’s in Urban Design from the Spitzer School of Architecture.
