Greetings Planners:

Once again the Herberger Center for Design Excellence of Arizona State University is pleased to be the publisher for the APA conference proceedings, this time from the very successful 2003 conference in Denver.

Since 1997, the Herberger Center has made the proceedings available to the conference participants on CD-ROM and to a worldwide audience via the Web. This method of publishing the proceedings has proven to be a popular way of sharing the knowledge and research that was presented at the conference.

Though we have always had a high number of papers from the conferences submitted for publication, not all the presentations are represented. If there was a specific presentation you saw that you don't find here, the author(s) will usually be happy to present you with a copy upon request.

The electronic publication of the conference proceedings has always been a team effort. As in years past, the Herberger Center joined the APA and AICP in this important publication effort. The editors acknowledge the efforts of the program participants in developing quality papers for inclusion in the proceedings. The extra efforts by the authors to prepare papers for publication have made it possible for all members of the APA to benefit from their research, and not just those who could attend the conference presentation.

The editorial team acknowledges the continued enthusiastic support of the AICP. Special thanks to Megan Valdiserri, Carolyn Smith, and Danielle Smith of the APA for their invaluable support.

The staff of the Herberger Center, publication arm of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Arizona State University, worked hard to make this publication possible. Kim Shetter, editor, coordinated the many papers we received this year and translated each of them into the HTML format necessary for publication. Our graphic designer, Robert Cao-Ba, arranged for the CD replication and coordinated the printed materials to go with the CD packaging.

As in years past, much of the credit for arranging the electronic publication of the proceedings belongs to Ray Quay, Assistant Director of Planning with the City of Phoenix. He continues to refine the technical aspects of the CD and Web publications, allowing everyone in our profession to benefit from the enhanced communications made possible with this technology.

Mary Kihl, AICP
Director, Herberger Center for Design Excellence
College of Architecture and Environmental Design
Arizona State University