Juan Francisco Saldarriaga

Juan Francisco Saldarriaga is a Senior Computational Designer at Google currently working on Google Earth. Previously, he led data and design research at Columbia University's Brown Institute for Media Innovation. Saldarriaga specializes in data-driven design, leveraging GIS, visualization, and AI to solve complex urban challenges. He also teaches graduate-level workshops and seminars on mapping, advanced GIS, and data visualization.

In the past, Saldarriaga worked as a research scholar at the Center for Spatial Research and the Spatial Information Design Lab and as an architectural designer for Carlos Zapata Studio and D.G.T. Architects. Saldarriaga has a Master of Architecture and a Master of Science in Urban Planning from Columbia University and a B.A. in Philosophy from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia.

Classes (Selected)

• ARCH6132 Intermediate Applications: Threads – Storytelling with Maps and Data

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

• AR for Everyone! Experiencing Augmented Reality News Stories in the Browser, selected as one of the winners of the 2020 Journalism 360 Challenge (2019).
• Points Unknown: New Frameworks for Investigation and Creative Expression Through Mapping, principal investigator. A Columbia University Collaboratory grant to create and implement courses that combine mapping, narrative, and storytelling in the School of Journalism and the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. Columbia University, (2016 - 2018).
• Conflict Urbanism: Colombia was awarded the best academic visualization at the CitiViz competition organized by Habitat X Change during the UN's Habitat 3 summit (2016).

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

• How We Die, exhibited at the Data Through Design art exhibit, at Made in NY Media Center, New York, (2018).
• Conflict Urbanism: Colombia, exhibited at the Oslo Architectural Triennale - On Residence, Oslo, Norway, (2016).
• Here Now! Social Media and the Psychological City, exhibited at BRIC Arts and Media House, New York, 2015, Get It Louder, Beijing, China, 2013, and Digitas, New York, (2012).

Publications (Selected)

• Saldarriaga, J., Yuan, H. "A Gravity Model Analysis Of Forced Displacement In Colombia," published in Cities, Volume 95, (2019).
• Saldarriaga, J., King, D. "Measuring Changes In Taxi Trips Near Infill Development And Issues For Curbside Management Of For-Hire Vehicles," published in Research in Transportation Business & Management, (2018).
• Saldarriaga, J., King, D. "Spatial Regulation Of Taxicab Services: Measuring Excess Travel From New York City," published in the Journal of Transport and Land Use, Volume 11 No. 1, (2018).
• Saldarriaga, J., Kurgan, L., Brawley, D. "Visualizing Conflict: Possibilities For Urban Research," published in Urban Planning, Volume 2, No. 1, (2017).
• Saldarriaga J., King, D. "Access to taxicabs for unbanked households: an exploratory analysis in New York City," published in the Journal of Public Transportation, Volume 20.1, (2017).