Allison Arieff is the editorial director of SPUR, an urban planning advocacy non-profit based in San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland. Known in full as San Francisco Planning and Urban Research, SPUR is primarily focused on improving urban planning efforts and policy in the San Francisco Bay Area. We are excited and honored to have Allison as a jury member for our Dry Futures competition.

Previous to her role at SPUR, Allison served as editor in chief at Dwell magazine, which she helped found back in 2000. She is also a contributing writer to the Atlantic’s CityLab, the New York Times and SPUR’s The Urbanist.

Her work with SPUR and Dwell have brought popular attention to sustainable design initiatives and policy, and as a resident of San Francisco, she is well aware of the strains the drought has put on the state. But based on her work with local government and planning officials, she's also seen time and time again how inefficient or straight-up nonexistent our laws regarding water conservation and policy are – meaning we could do far more with what we already have.

Have an idea for how to address the drought with design? Submit your ideas to the Dry Futures competition!