james tschikov

multidisciplinary urban planner + researcher currently focused on affordable housing development

open to projects involving urban cartography, cooperative ownership models, environmental justice, climate resiliency, LGBTQ+ spaces, regenerative industries, and more.

based in the world’s borough 
Queens, New York

---

Email
LinkedIn
Medium

SELECT WORK

NYC DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING PRESERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT

MANHATTAN BOROUGH PLANNER
APR 2023 - PRESENT

HPD’s Office of Neighborhood Strategies is charged with ensuring that housing development and preservation efforts are guided by community engagement and coordinated with public investments in infrastructure and services. Planning coordinates design, environmental review, and affordability programs to facilitate projects through the City’s land use review (ULURP).

Notable projects: ShareNYC,The Beacon, Carmen Villegas Apartments, 388 Hudson Street RFP

PRATT GCPE >>

DIGITZING DISPLACEMENT & HOUSING JUSTICE // MASTERS THESIS FOR CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING
MAR 2022 - JAN 2023

This graduate research study examined the rise of real estate digitalization in relation to its effect on rental housing and gentrification in NYC. 

Incorporating evidence from geospatial analyses, platform reviews, journalistic sources, and interviews with researchers, the study demonstrated that residential PropTech is used to exacerbate sociospatial inequities embedded in New York City’s housing landscape. I argued that any regulation of these novel technologies must be holistic in their approach to address exploitative practices, ensure data privacy, expand tenant protections, and develop paths toward decommodified housing opportunities.

PRATT GCPE >>

MULTIPLICITY // PUBLICATION
MAY 2022 - JAN 2023

MultipliCity is the Pratt GCPE publication, bringing together student and faculty voices, studio projects with community partners, and fieldwork.

The 2022 edition approached the topic of resilience + adaptation with a holistic lens. Articles contemplated: How are communities creating networks of care and deepening their resilience through affordable housing? How are we as a city and collective continuing to adapt to an ongoing pandemic? How can place-based heritage be preserved as communities evolve and adapt? And, critically, how are we moving beyond climate resilience to imagine transformative futures for frontline communities?

CHHAYA CDC // ANHD >>

DREAM DISRUPTED: ASSESSING THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON HOMEOWNERSHIP IN QUEENS // REPORT
SEPT 2021 - JUN 2022

Chhaya CDC aims to build power and address the housing and economic needs for South Asian and Indo-Caribbean New Yorkers.

This report illuminates the scale of financial impacts associated with the pandemic and uncovers looming threats of real estate speculation that may induce a wave of displacement among LMI homeowners. The findings of the report provide insight into the state of mortgages, the sharp rise of homeowner costs and home prices putting pressure on low and moderate homeowners, and the latest neighborhoods affected by investor buyouts and home flipping.

PRATT GCPE

SELECTED WORK FOR HIGHBRIDGE CDC AND 1199SEIU, THE BROWNSVILLE COMMUNITY JUSTICE CENTER, UPROSE, PROSPECT PARK ALLIANCE // CLIENT PROJECTS 2020-2023

The Pratt Institute Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment partners with community-based organizations to provide technical assistance, research, and planning through an advocacy lens.

Select projects include:
(1) Contextual urban design for the future Shirley Chisohlm Monument in Prospect Park, Brooklyn // (2) A model for Caregiver Affordable Housing or a Resiliency Economy (CAHRE) in Highbridge, Bronx // (3) Establishing a solidarity economy through grassroots economic organizing in Brownsville, Brooklyn // (4) Planning for a climate resilient waterfront & industrial just transition in Sunset Park, Brooklyn //