Marc Baily Celebrates 30 Years

Marc embodies what Boffa Miskell does: bringing together different factions and perspectives to produce successful project or policy outcomes.

Boffa Miskell partner Marc Baily specialises in urban planning projects – from strategic-level to city- or town-scale urban design. With a unique combination of strategic planning, spatial design, and master planning experience, he is an ‘integrator' and he appreciates the complexity of urban environments.

Marc is frequently engaged by clients in a leadership, or ‘project master planner’ role to guide the multiple disciplines in urban projects. Clients, project partners and team members rely on his expertise as an experienced and fluent speaker who is very comfortable engaging with communities in the often-challenging context of urban change.

“A standout moment for me - I have had lots of similar experiences since -- happened in one of my first weeks at Boffa Miskell,” says landscape architect Frazer Baggaley. “Marc took me along to the Kapiti Coast for a late evening workshop with a community group who, by all reports, were extremely upset with what was being proposed for the MacKay’s to Peka Peka Expressway.

“I was extremely nervous about the environment we were walking into,” Frazer continues. “However my nerves where unwarranted and short-lived, as Marc had defused the crowd and allayed all concerns by the end of his introduction. Marc has an innate ability to read a group or situation, he can very subtlety and quickly adjust his approach to connect with people at their level. This is an invaluable and important skill that sets Marc apart. His communication style is clear, relaxed, honest, and accessible. This warms people to him and builds trust quickly.”

In 2012 Marc, along with landscape architect Rachel de Lambert and planner Ken Gimblett, was part of the Boffa Miskell contingent of the multi-disciplinary Blueprint 100 Consortium, tasked with setting the spatial framework for the redevelopment of Central Christchurch after the 2011 earthquakes.

Reflecting on his role in the process, Marc said, “I’m proud that we delivered a plan that… set the city up to grow into itself and make Christchurch into a place that maintained and amplified its essential spatial structure, but added more opportunities to make it better for people.”

Since then, in a less dramatic context, much of Marc’s project work has focussed on revitalising some of the smaller towns in the lower north island. Hawera, Levin, Fielding and Foxton are just a few of the regional centres and communities that have benefitted from his involvement.

Marc is a specialist in this field. He understands urban environments and the ways in which people use them, and that knowledge provides a solid foundation on which to build development concepts that can catalyse positive change in a place – whether a city of 200,000 or a town of 20,000.

Urban designer Stuart Houghton says, “Marc has the rare ability to continually maintain and dovetail perspectives on both ideal and practicable outcomes, without losing sight of the bigger picture. He inspires those around him to remember that our work is about the art of the possible; and sometimes it’s a slow game and there will be more than one ‘bite of the cherry’ to create the future we want.

“Marc is great at distilling the simple from the complex and that cut-through is needed in addressing the urban challenges and changes we face.”