Gia Biagi

Gia Biagi is a Principal at Studio Gang, an architecture and urban design collective located in Chicago and New York. Gia is widely regarded as a thought leader around issues related to cities and public space and guides the Studio’s Urbanism and Civic Impact work. 

At Studio Gang, she leads design teams, coordinates master plans, facilitates community engagement, and directs the urban approach for projects across the United States, such as: Polis Station that proposes how design might be used to improve relationships between police and the communities they serve; Civic Commons that shows how public assets can be more relevant and foster inclusion and economic opportunity in cities; Edge Effect that conceptualizes Milwaukee’s port district as an estuarine condition that balances commercial, residential, and recreation uses; Memphis Riverfront that proposes a vision for five miles of parks and city fabric that reside along the Mississippi River in downtown Memphis; and Memphis Schools Reuse that grounds renewal of closed schools in the needs and aspirations of the people who live in the neighborhoods most affected and where these now dormant assets reside. 

Prior to joining Studio Gang, Gia spent sixteen years working for the City of Chicago, including posts at the Park District as Director of Planning, Director of Strategy and Policy, and Chief of Staff. She led multi-year planning, design, and community engagement efforts that produced signature civic projects like Maggie Daley Park, Northerly Island, The 606/Bloomingdale Trail, and the first parks and recreation Strategic Plan in Chicago in nearly two decades. 

Gia is President of NeighborSpace, a non-profit land trust that provides community based management and long-term protection to over 100 urban gardens in neighborhoods across Chicago. She serves as an advisor to Assembly, a civic engagement initiative of the Center for Active Design and Knight Foundation. She is also a member of the Urban Land Institute and as Lambda Alpha International, an honorary society for the study of land economics.