Meet the Upper Floor Housing Experts

Dan Carmody

Principal, Carmody Consulting

Schooled as a city planner in the Midwest and the North of England, Dan Carmody is a devoted urbanist with special interest in regenerating depressed local economies. Educated as a tavern keeper, he understands the needs of independent business owners and the importance of conviviality in successful place making.

Dan has been a downtown and community development practitioner for more than forty years. Serving as a city planner, succeeding as a tavern keeper, and developing two different community development organizations into national models.

Between 1988 and 2005 he led Renaissance Rock Island, a consortium of non-profit community and economic development groups that helped revive an Illinois community devastated by the mid-1980’s Rust Belt meltdown. Since 2007, Dan has led the Eastern Market Corporation a non-profit that is re-defining the role of public markets/food hubs in the development of regional food systems. 

Since the mid-1990’s he has also served as a consultant to more than forty community development programs throughout North America, served on the board of directors of the International Downtown Association, and frequently presents at food, economic development, and place-making conferences.

Dan is a visionary with street cred. Having witnessed the process of revitalization from many perspectives, he provides the kind of insight needed to recalibrate strategies to improve organizational effectiveness.

Mike Jackson, FAIA

Former Deputy SHPO, IHPA

Mike Jackson, FAIA is preservation architect in Springfield IL and a lifetime supporter of many different historic preservation movements including roadside architecture, sustainability, accessibility, and Main Street. He was the Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) in Illinois from 2009 – 2013. He was the Chief Architect for the Illinois SHPO from 1983-2013 and lead the design services team for Illinois Main Street.

He is currently the Co-Chair of the Codes and Standards Technical Committee of the Association for Preservation Technology (APT) and created a task force on Building Codes on Main Street. He also directs the APT Building Technology Heritage Library (BTHL), a free online archive of pre-1964 architectural trade catalogs, builder’s guides, technical manuals, house plan catalogs and building codes.

His enthusiasm for downtown revitalization started with his University of Illinois thesis on Main Street Galena, Illinois and continued with Columbia University graduate thesis on the “American storefront in the age of cast iron.”  His enthusiasm for revitalization included the renovation of a former storefront grocery story into a home in 1985.  This effort resulted in a Chicago Planning Commission publication the Conversion of Storefronts to Housing in 1990.

He is a current board member of the Landmarks Illinois and the National Building Arts Museum in Sauget, Illinois.