Jaime Varas is an urban designer with experience in project management, a background in architecture and planning, and a keen interest in urbanism. His education and professional background emphasize the development of urban placemaking, green streets, public space redevelopment, urbanizations, design guidelines, and specifications. He has worked as a designer and in the construction business in the US, Australia, Brazil, and Chile – where he ran his own design and build company for five years. His work ranges from architectural detailing to designing large urbanizations and city planning.

Urban placemaking has been Jaime’s focus since he started working as a city planning consultant for four municipalities in the central coast of Chile, where he played an integral role in community engagement and designing project proposals guided by local governments. Jaime believes that design can create positive change on a community scale and urban public spaces are potential catalyzers for that change. Jaime helped in the design of a civic center, community plazas, and a waterfront park in the Valparaiso Region (Chile), working with interdisciplinary teams, communities, and municipalities.

He participated in a series of charrettes to design and build public space infrastructure in South America as part of a nonprofit organization. Working with an international team of designers and scholars, he helped to renew key public space for displaced communities in Brazil. These public realm design experiences inspired him to study Urban Design at UC Berkeley.

Lucky father of three children, he enjoys going for walks and riding bikes with them. When not working, Jaime appreciates time to read, do Yoga, craftsmanship, and stream movies in the middle of the night.