Amanda Burden

Burden was born in New York City, the daughter of socialite Babe Paley and her first husband, Stanley G. Mortimer Jr. (1913–1999), an heir to the Standard Oil fortune. She is a descendant of the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Jay, and a granddaughter of Dr. Harvey Cushing, the "Father of American Neurosurgery" and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. In 1947, her mother married William S. Paley, the son of a successful immigrant cigar entrepreneur who built a family acquisition into CBS. Her stepmother, Kathleen Harriman Mortimer, was a daughter of railroad heir and United States ambassador W. Averell Harriman. She graduated from the Westover School in Middlebury, Connecticut and attended Wellesley College until her marriage in 1964. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1976, with a concentration in environmental science. She later earned a Master of Urban Planning from Columbia University, writing an award-winning thesis about solid-waste management. ==Career==

Burden was a public school teaching aide in Harlem in the 1960s. From 1983 until 1990, Burden was Vice President for Planning and Design of the Battery Park City Authority. She was responsible for the development and implementation of design guidelines for the site as well as for overseeing the design of all open spaces and parkland, including the waterfront esplanade. Among her other New York projects are the Midtown Community Court and the Red Hook Community Justice Center, which provides integrated legal, economic and social services. Starting in 1990, Burden served on the New York City Planning Commission, when she was appointed by New York City Council president Andrew Stein. She served as Commissioner from 2002 to 2013 under Mayor Bloomberg. New York City Planning Commission Burden served as Chair of the New York City Planning Commission and Director of the Department of City Planning from 2002 to 2013 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. and develop the Brooklyn Waterfront and Hudson Yards. In her term, Burden sought to combine the large transformative change of Robert Moses with a neighborhood-sensitive ethic inspired by Jane Jacobs, writing in 2006, "Big projects are a necessary part of the diversity, competition and growth that both Jacobs and Moses fought for. But today's big projects must have a human scale; must be designed, from idea to construction, to fit into the city. Projects may fail to live up to Jane Jacob's standards, but they are still judged by her rules." As stated in a New York Times story in 2012: "Ms. Burden, who spends her leisure time walking the city, boating or birding, argues that 'good design is good economic development, and I know this is true.' She unabashedly calls the administration 'pro-development,' and points to the High Line, which the city says has generated $2 billion in private investment in the area and has created 12,000 jobs. 'What I have tried to do, and think I have done,' she said, 'is create value for these developers, every single day of my term.'" Despite a focus on increased development and intent to respect the wishes and diversity of neighborhoods, the increase in housing supply, density and major zoning changes had not translated into affordable rents or homes. Burden herself acknowledged the failure to address the price of housing when speaking in 2013 at a CityLab panel on urban expansion: {{blockquote Honors In 1966, Burden was named to the Best Dressed List of the New York Couture Group. In 2005, Pratt Institute awarded Burden an Honorary Doctorate in Public Administration, and the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects presented her with its 2005 Center for Architecture Award. The Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum presented her with its 2004 Design Patron Award. In 2008, Burden was inducted into the membership of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) College of Fellows, and was named the 5th most powerful person in New York real estate by The New York Observer. In 2009, Burden received the Urban Land Institute's J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. Burden announced that she would donate the accompanying $100,000 award to ULI to create a yearly award honoring significant public spaces around the world. In 2011, Burden received the American Architectural Foundation Keystone Award, which recognizes leadership in design by individuals from outside the architectural discipline. In 2012, the Architectural League of New York granted Burden the President's Medal. Columbia University awarded Burden an Honorary Doctorate in Law in 2016. == Personal life ==

in 2010 Burden has been married twice. Her first husband was Shirley Carter Burden Jr. (1941–1996). An owner of The Village Voice and New York magazine and later a New York City councilman, he worked as an aide to Sen. Robert Kennedy in the 1960s, sparking his wife's interest in social justice and inspiring her to pursue a teaching career. They had two children before divorcing in 1972, including lawyer and author Belle Burden. Her second husband was Steven J. Ross (1927–1992), the head of Warner Communications; they married in 1979 and divorced in 1981. Burden had a relationship with journalist and talk show host Charlie Rose from 1993 to about 2006. == References ==