This document is Neda Mohsenian-Rad's resume summarizing her education and experience. She has a Master of Community Planning degree from the University of Cincinnati with a specialization in Urban Design and Physical Planning. She also has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Shahid Beheshti University in Iran. Her experience includes architecture internships, research assistantships, teaching assistant roles, and winning awards for her thesis and design competitions. She has skills in design software, graphics, and GIS. Samples of her work include residential complex designs in Iran, an urban design plan for New Orleans, and a green infrastructure improvement plan for Cincinnati.

1. Neda Mohsenian-Rad
Master of Community Planning
University of Cincinnati
Architectural, Urban Design,
and Urban Planning Portfolio

2. Master of Community Planning, University of Cincinnati, 2014-2016 GPA:3.87
Specialization: Urban Design and Physical Planning
Courses: Plan Making Workshop, Land Use, Methods of Physical Analysis, Structure & Dynamic of Human settlements
Co-op, Architecture Internship, Summer 2015
Gresham, Smith and Partners, Nashville, TN
School of Planning Newsletter Editor, Spring 2015
University of Cincinnati
Research Assistant, Fall 2014 - 2016
University of Cincinnati
Worked on informal settlements research project on five Iranian cities
Intern Architect, 2011-2012
Nahour Company
Bachelor of Architecture, Shahid Beheshti University, 2007-2012 GPA:17.4/20
Courses: Architecture Design Studios, Structure, Construction, Environment Conditions Control, Architecture History
Certificate in Urban Design, University of Cincinnati, 2014-2016
Courses: Placemaking, Urban Design & Urbanism, Sustainable Development, Site Planning, Urban Design Practicum
Neda Mohsenian-Rad
Architect/Urban Designer
Education
Work Experience
Teaching Assistant, Urban Planning & Design Studios, Fall 2014-Summer 2016
University of Cincinnati
Graduate Assistant Scholarship, 2014-2016
University of Cincinnati
Covering 100% tuition
Outstanding Student Award, Graduate Assistant, 2016
University of Cincinnati
Directors’ Choice Award for Best Thesis, 2016
University of Cincinnati
1st Place & $2,000 Prize,
2012Tehran Municipality, Tehran, Iran
Tehran Contemporary Urban Facade Competition,
2nd Place & $1,000, 2012
Iran University of Science & Technology
Designing Iran-Iraq War Veteran’s Memorial Competition
Awards & Honors
Revit
SketchUp
Photoshop
Illustrator
InDesign
V-Ray
AutoCad
Microsoft Office
GIS
Rhino
Web Design
Will be provided upon request
Contact Me
Skills
References
Recreation
neda.m.rad@gmail.com
neda-mohsenian-rad.com
An Architect by training with postgraduate education in
Urban Design and Planning. Self-motivated with
extensive experience in working as part of a team and
under pressure to meet challenging deadlines and
objectives. Excellent in hand-sketching and 3D
modeling, visualization, and graphic software.
Reading
Hiking
Travel
Politic
Craft
Music
Profile
Teaching assistant for graduate and undergrad design studios. Prepared course syllabus and schedule. Taught sketching and hand drawing
techniques, short lectures on assignments and tutorial for graphic softwares including Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator, and technical softwares
such as GIS. Worked with students on their design concept to develop their works. Taught the physical model creating techniques. Graded
students’ assignments and final projects.
Course names: Methods of Physical Planning ( graduate studio), Planning Design Studio: Topical (fourth year studio), and Principles of
Planning Design Graphics I, (freshman studio)
Corporate and urban design studio, worked on three projects, including civic and office buildings on different phases of design and documentation,
SD, DD, and CD. Primary used Revit to prepare all the design and construction documents. Also used sketchUp for conceptual design and
Photoshop for post rendering image production.
Weekly newsletter published for over 1300 recipients, including alumni, graduate and undergraduate students, and faculty, informing about the
news, activities, accomplishments, and events by SOP community.
Worked on luxury high-rise residential buildings. Prepared SD and DD documents with AutoCad.
2nd Place, 2010
Shahid Beheshti University
Design & Sketch Competition for Medium Size Urban Retail

3. 17
Revitalizing theTradition
University of Dramatic Arts
Layers of Life
Residential Complex
Diloville
TheCanalDistrict for theFuture
of NewOrleans
Re-Greening the Place
Green Infrastructure
Improvement
GIS
Neighborhood Analysis
Photography
Free-hand Drawing
& Sketches
01 07
TABLE OF
CONTENT
13
31
2523

4. 1
LAYERS OF LIFE
Residential Complex,Tehran
ArchitectureThesis Studio, Fall 2011
Background:
The site is located in “Dar-Band” district, an originally summer house area in mid-20th century. Over the last three decades, gardens and
villas in this area have been converted to apartments due to the overpopulation of the capital and the sprawl of the city to near lands, and
Dar-band now became a dense urban environment.
With overpopulation and using maximum lands for housing (due to high land prices), open spaces for social interaction has became hard
to find. In addition, in contrast to the near past that most people used to live in large houses with yards and terraces, now apartments and
condos are the regular places for leaving; however, people’s need for open and semi-open spaces is still vital.

5. 2
Above: one of the first conceptual drawing, illustrating my
design concept of multi-level gardens, and residential units that
are surrounded by trees.
Below: parking spaces moved down to provide a car-free
community, providing a space for events and social interaction

6. 3
The priority of the design:
1. Common area for communities: open spaces of Tehran’s residential complexes are mainly used as surface parking, interfacing
pedestrian movement and making open spaces inappropriate for social interaction. Strengthening social interaction in a community provokes
safety and promote liveliness of the environment. In comparison with gated communities, which are isolated and disconnected, this project is
designed to d bind with its surrounding area. In addition, this project provides open, semi-open, and close places for community usage.

7. 4
2. Open spaces for each unit: with the increase in population and density, Tehran’s residences are losing the benefits of open
spaces and natural landscape for their homes, while the needs for these spaces is high. Therefore, the concept of this project is to build units
surrounded by trees, where each has its own, in some completely private yard or terrace.

8. 5
3. Following the topography and urban fabric: the site is located in foot of a mountain with steep slope. The neighborhood is
occupied with gardens, that are last from the past, and small apartments making a fine-grained urban fabric with narrow organic roads and
long steps for pedestrians. The project tries to imitate a fine-grained style despite the fact that this is a big project site. It also follows the
topography, providing the continuity of the coming up and down of the urban fabric and gets benefit of this difference in height. The benefits
include: enjoying cityscape for several units and in common open spaces, indoor sunlight in units, and yards for apartments.

9. 6

10. 7
DILLOVILLE
District Design, New Orleans
ULI Hines Competition, Spring 2015
The Competition:
A two weeks design project, ULI Hines Competition is an urban design and real estate challenge engages multidisciplinary students teams
consists of five graduate students. Our team were made of two master of Urban Planning, one Master of Architecture, one Master of Business
Administration, and one Master of Design. My role in group were varied from research, urban design and buildings arrangement, post rendering
works, and creating info graphs.

11. 8
Project Narrative:
New Orleans is an incredibly vibrant city suffered devastating consequences after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. As the displaced population
continues to return to the city among a broader and younger demographic, the newly envisioned Diloville development will create a memorable
place while bringing a new awareness of water that is so deeply woven into the cultural and historic fabric of the City. The site is located
adjacent to two upcoming BioDistrict development, bringing about 34,000 new jobs. It is, in addition, in close distance from CBD and the
French Quarter, the main tourism attraction of New Orleans.

12. 9

13. 10
Below: creating a community that provides diverse range of amenity and
needs, and is active during the day and night.Active street will help the safety
of the community, generate financial benefit to the community and city, and
provide a walkable environment.
Right: the infograph show different layers of thinking and design that
shape the new community, and help it to be a cohesive and connected living,
working, and fun neighborhood.

14. 11

15. 12

16. 13
RE-GREENING THE PLACE
Using Forgotten spaces to re-activate a neighborhood,West End, Cincinnati
Green Infrastructure, Fall 2016
Background:
Vacant places and forgotten spaces overwhelm the landscape of Cincinnati’s West End neighborhood.
The target area for this green infrastructure improvement is the area with highest vacant land and lack of designed green spaces.
This improvement is an addition to a revitalization plan that includes re-energizing the street, re-operating the storefronts, adding pocket parks,
and new developments to the target area.

17. 14
Store Fronts
Community Activity Points
Existing Buildings
Legend
Vacant Lots
Green Infrastructure
improvement corridors
B
A
C
D
C D
BA
Green Alleys with permeable
pavement create a new network
for pedestrian and cyclists.
Complete street provide safe
place for pedestrians as well as
manage storm water run-off.
Shared space with permeable
pavement in narrow streets with
low traffic.
Trees and shrubs filter the air
close to the highway and help to
absorb the water runoff.

18. 15
E
E
I
J
H
G
K
FreemanAve.
Dayton Street
A
B
C
A
B
C
York Street
N
F
E
G
I
Light garden improve the safety and
provide an attraction in the area
An example for sidewalks
Small sitting area in front of stores and
restaurants

19. 16
Section A-A
Section B-B
Section C-C
F
H
J
Permeable pavement with concrete
blocks and grass
An example of permeable pavement
for green alleys
An example of permeable pavement
for shared streets
K An example of rain gardens

20. 17
REVITALIZING TRADITION
University of Dramatic Arts,Tehran
Architecture StudioVII, Fall 2010
Background:
The district of “Niavaran”, in North of Tehran, houses a series of buildings and places that are nationally recognized because of their modern
and contemporary architecture styles, all noble in design but also influenced by the Persian architecture. From the North, there is a complex of
palaces, nowadays function as museum and garden, a research institute, and cultural and entertainment places. Niavaran Street itself is one of
the major and old streets in Tehran. Considering the location, function, and prestige of the buildings and their national architectural recognition,
Niavaran has became a center and a representation of todays Iranian culture and art. This project aimed to utilize an empty land in Niavaran
to build the University of Dramatic Arts to future improve Niavaran’s cultural and art landscape.

21. 18
1. Considering the topography and the shape of the site, we can divide the site into two areas. 2. It also
has the front, facing the main street and continuity of urban buildings and the back facing the secondary
street, residential core. 3. Niavaran Street curves in front of the site, making the corner of the building
more visible for passers.
Multi-level yards: Multi-level yards are common in traditional Iranian architecture, especially on hilly sites, as they allow differentiating
users, usage, and level of privacy and create a hierarchy of open spaces. This helps the building to have yards that interact with outside areas
and yards that are private for student. Each yard will have different characteristics according to its usage. The topography of the site itself also
nicely allows the multi-level yards.
Persian Design Concepts

22. 19
Koshk: The University of Dramatic Art will be located in a land full of trees, likely to be a center for
novel dramatic art by young Iranian generation. Thinking of a building that looks to outside and proudly
shows itself, reminds the concept of Koshk, a stand-alone historic Persian building located in the middle
of a garden, facing openly to all sides.

23. 20

24. 21
Axis and Geometry: Following specific axis and a clear geometry to allow easy visual understanding of the place is also an important
factor in the Persian architecture and a design goal.

25. 22

26. 23
GIS for Physical Planning Analysis
City of Reading, OH
Methods of Physical Planning, Spring 2015
The following maps are created by GIS as part of a physical analysis of the City of Reading, OH. The City of Reading, Ohio is located just
north of Cincinnati. It is a relatively small community but a very walkable one.
Buffer Zone; Five Minutes Walking Distance From the CBD Intersection

27. 24
Land Cover AnalysisExisting Land Use Map
ConnectivityClassification of Urban Street Hierarchy Five Minutes Walking Distance Buffer Zone
from the Schools
Zoning Map

28. 25
SKETCHES
The following free-hand drawings area made by marker, water color, and pen.

29. 26

30. 27

31. 28

32. 29

33. 30

34. 31
PHOTOGRAPHY
Photos area from my trips to historic sites of Iran, India, and Turkey over the past few years.
Dance of Light and Color, Paradise on the Earth
Mosque, Shiraz, Iran

35. 32
TheFrame
AnOldHouseinGorgan,Iran
MesmerisingSimplicity
TajMahal,Angra,India
God’sPresenceintheDesert
Mosque,Iran
DetailsDefinetheWhole
House,Kashan,Iran

36. 33
Harmony
RedFort,Agra,India

37. 34
StreetCafe
Istanbul,Turkey
Refulgence
AyaSofia,Istanbul,Turkey