Jonathan Freeman is a chartered planner specialising in the design aspects of planning.

Jonathan has over 20 years’ experience, working across the public and private sectors. He has written on subjects including design review, tall buildings and groundscrapers, and supermarket-led development for a number of urban design journals.

His early career included a strong grounding in field of research at the Bartlett School of Planning, on topics such as the measurement of design quality in planning and the value of public space. This was followed by a move to the London Borough of Hackney where he provided advice on the urban design and heritage effects of development proposals, including tall buildings in the City Fringe. He developed his skills in urban design and masterplanning at AECOM design + planning where he coordinated the delivery of major planning applications, and the writing of town centre masterplans and development briefs for public sector clients, such as English Partnerships, the Olympic Delivery Authority and the Bletchley Park Trust.

From 2007 Jonathan worked as an advisor in the CABE design review team, taking major schemes through the design review process. These included the London 2012 Main Stadium and Velodrome, Liverpool Waters, the Shell Centre, and 5 Broadgate. He also oversaw the delivery of CABE’s 2010 report Supermarket-led Development: Asset or Liability? In 2011 Jonathan transferred to the Design Council where he acted as lead advisor for the Thames Tideway Tunnel Design Review Panel.

Jonathan joined Peter Stewart Consultancy in 2014, where he was principally responsible for the writing of townscape assessments, heritage assessments and design reports for a wide range of development proposals. He gained extensive experience of producing reports for major developments requiring an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Jonathan transferred to The Townscape Consultancy in 2021. He has advised on several high profile projects in London and the home counties. These include:

• Aberfeldy Village Masterplan, E14 – Estate regeneration, including tall buildings (Client: Ecoworld London; Architects: Levitt Bernstein and Morris + Company);
• St Mary’s Wharf, Guildford – Residential-led mixed use riverside development  (Client: Native Land; Architects: Squire & Partners);
• 65 Crutched Friars, EC3 – Student residence with community/cultural uses (Client: Dominvs Group; Architects:3XN);
• 100 New Bridge Street, EC4 – Office-led redevelopment near Ludgate Circus ((Client: Helical Bicycle 2 Ltd.; Architects: Gensler); and
• Telephone house, EC2 – Office-led development on Leonard Circus (Client: Brockton Everlast; Architects: Piercy & Co.)