John D. Gower

Urban Design Director
CityWide Development Corporation
Dayton, OH

John Gower currently serves as Urban design Director for CityWide Development Corporation. John’s academic and professional training took place in the architecture and urban design and community development arena. John served as Downtown Planner for the City of Dayton from 1977 to 2001. He was the Planning and Community Development Director for the City from 2001 until 2011. In 2011 he retired as Director and returned to work in the Office of the City Manager as the Urban Design Coordinator and Reimaging Strategist on a part-time basis until 2016. He recently joined the CityWide team as the Urban Design Director. His areas of expertise have included urban design and development planning, visioning and implementation, historic preservation and adaptive reuse planning and place and asset-based strategic planning and implementation for the Greater Downtown and the city as a whole.