Sandy Sorlien is principal of Smartcode Local and is a Technical Advisor to the Center for Applied Transect Studies (CATS), a think tank founded to promote understanding of the built environment as part of the natural environment.

Sandy is a code writer, editor, and photographer who has coordinated transect-based tools by more than thirty different planning and design firms. In addition to the SmartCode and Neighborhood Conservation Code, she edits supplementary Modules that address building-scale, community-scale, municipal, and regional standards and performance goals. These Modules include Zero Net Energy Buildings, Tree Canopy Cover, Vehicle Miles Traveled, Regional Watersheds, Riparian Buffers, Civic Space, Affordable Housing, Transit Oriented Development, Complete Thoroughfares, Bicycling, Visitability, Sprawl Repair, Signage, and many more. The freeware Modules may be downloaded at CATS.

Sandy lectures widely on form-based codes, transect-based planning, and the calibration of model codes for individual municipalities and private developments. She has photographed the built environment in all fifty U.S. states (resulting in the book Fifty Houses, published by Johns Hopkins in 2002) and has calibrated or reviewed SmartCodes for municipalities in twelve states as well as Mexico, England, Romania, and the Bahamas. Sandy also teaches transect-based and form-based coding techniques to some of the country's most progressive municipal and county planners, urban designers, and architects. She is a member of the Congress for the New Urbanism and is CNU-Accredited.

Sandy was born in Philadelphia in 1954 and grew up in King of Prussia before it was a mall. From 1978-1990 she lived in the Philadelphia river wards of Northern Liberties and Queen Village, and since 1990 has lived in the Manayunk-Roxborough section of Philadelphia with her husband John Arnold, a home inspector.

Professional Leadership:
2010-present - Transect Codes Council
2008-present - Director of Technical Research for the Center for Applied Transect Studies (CATS)
2008-2009 - Commonwealth Speaker for the Pennsylvania Humanities Council
2007-present - Smartcode Local master class leader
2004-2010 - Managing Editor for the SmartCode model development code
2008 - Principal Co-Author (with Andrés Duany), SmartCode Version 9 and Manual, New Urban News Publications
2007 - Host Committee, CNU XV national Congress, Philadelphia, PA
2006, 2007 - Urban Lab Leader, Coding for Neighborhood Evolution, Congress for the New Urbanism
2006-07 - SmartCode Pro Sessions - Principal
2005-2008 - SmartCode Workshop - speaker
2005 Codes Team Leader, Mississippi Renewal Forum, Biloxi, MS
2004 National SPE Conference Chair, Photography & Place, Newport RI

Code Finishing - Reviews of draft SmartCodes 2004-2007 for
Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. projects:
Huckelberry Creek, Panama City, FL
Bull Street, Columbia, SC
Independence, Lancaster, PA
Vermilion Parish, LA
Abbeville, LA
Lake Charles, LA
Erath, LA
Delcambre, LA
St. Bernard Parish, LA

Code Finishing - Reviews of draft SmartCodes by other firms:
South Fork, Colorado (adopted June 2009) by Crabtree Group

SmartCode Calibration with Photographic Analysis, at onsite charrettes:
2010 Robert Orr & Associates, Damariscotta, ME
2009 DPZ Charlotte, Camden, South Carolina Downtown Walking District
2007 Donald Powers Architects and Cornish Associates, Jamestown, RI
2007 Joanna Alimaniestianu Architects, Bran, Romania
2006 Robert Orr & Associates, Waveland, MS
2006 Fisher & Hall Urban Design, Pass Christian, MS
2006 HDR Town Planning, Gulfport, MS
2006 Jaime Correa & Associates, D'Iberville, MS
2006 DPZ & Co - Gentilly Neighborhood Charrette, New Orleans
2006 DPZ & Co - District One UNOP Charrettes, New Orleans
2006 DPZ & Co - District Six UNOP Charrettes, New Orleans
2005 DPZ & Co - SmartCode Manual & Photography, San Antonio, TX
2005 DPZ & Co - SmartCode Manual & Photography, Montgomery, AL

Form-Based Code Presentations and Workshops (selected):
2010
CNU 18, Atlanta GA
2009
APA National Conference, Minneapolis, MN
Smart Growth School, San Francisco, CA
CNU 17, Denver, CO
2008
Andrews University charrette, Great Abaco, Bahamas
Climate Change and Urban Design, CEU Congress, Oslo, Norway
Philadelphia Zoning Code Commission
CNU XVI, Austin TX
2007
CNU XV, Philadelphia, PA
Andrews University charrette, Michigan City, IN
Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, Lincoln, England
City of Ocean Springs, Ocean Springs, MS
2006
University of Miami School of Architecture
CNU XIV, Providence, RI
Andrews University charrette, Saucier, MS
Ayers Saint Gross, Long Beach, MS
Seaside Institute Rebuilding Symposium, Biloxi, MS
Tecnologico de Monterrey, Querétaro, Mexico

Essays and Op-Eds (selected):
"Critics May Miss The Green Point of the SmartCode,"
Planetizen, January 12, 2009
"All Green is Not Good,"
Green Architecture and Urbanism Council Report, December 2007

Awards:
2009 CNU Charter Award - The SmartCode (principal co-author)
2007 Form-Based Codes Award - Gulfport, MS (charrette team member and initial calibrator)

contact: sandysorlien@comcast.net

Center for Applied Transect Studies

SmartCode Version 9 and Manual