Kara Wilbur
Senior AssociateFBCI Involvement
Kara is a planner and urban designer with Principle, an urban design and development firm based in New England. She has more than 15 years of national experience working with both public and private sector clients. Her work has focused on revitalization of transitioning downtowns, redevelopment of outdated retail corridors, and common sense transportation plans that promote safety and economic value. She has also spearheaded a new generation of comprehensive plans and innovative form-based codes that open the door for high-quality investment. With colleagues at Principle and other collaborators from across the country, Kara has led the development of a new form-based code framework called the PlaceCode, which will be open-sourced in the coming years. In addition to her planning work, she is pursuing her second small-scale development project in Lewiston, Maine. Believing in the importance of bringing national best practices to the forefront of New England planning, Kara was a co-founder of the New England Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism in 2004 and served as the organization’s first president. She is currently serving as the co-chair of Build Maine, quickly becoming the state’s most relevant multi-disciplinary placemaking event. She lives in Portland, Maine.
