Sara Bronin

Sara Bronin is a Mexican-American architect and attorney whose interdisciplinary research focuses on how law and policy can foster more equitable, sustainable, well-designed, and connected places. She is the author of Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World, and she founded and directs the National Zoning Atlas, which aims to digitize, demystify, and democratize information about zoning in the United States.

Bronin is a Professor at the Cornell School of Art, Architecture, and Planning, an Associate Member of the Cornell Law School Faculty, a Professor in the Rubacha Department of Real Estate, a Faculty Fellow of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, and the Director of the Legal Constructs Lab. As a leading voice on historic preservation law and related land use practices, Bronin was recently confirmed by the Senate and assumed the role of the 12th Chair of the U.S. Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP).  She will be on a public service leave from Cornell for the duration of her federal service. The council advises the President and Congress on decisions and policies that promote the preservation and enhancement of national historic resources.

Bronin has co-authored two treatises, including the land use volume of the Restatement (Fourth) of Property, which distills principles of black letter law that will shape judicial decisions for decades to come. She has also written four books and dozens of articles on renewable energy, climate change, housing, urban planning, transportation, real estate development, and federalism.

She has advised the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Sustainable Development Code, has served on the board of Latinos in Heritage Conservation, and founded Desegregate Connecticut. Previously, she led the award-winning, unanimously adopted overhaul of the zoning code and city plan of Hartford, Connecticut. Bronin holds a juris doctor from Yale Law School, a master of science from the University of Oxford (Rhodes Scholar), as well as a B.Arch. and B.A. from the University of Texas–Austin.