Janet Marie Smith
	Photo by Phil Farnsworth

Original Appointment: March 2007

Janet Marie Smith was named senior vice president of planning and development for the Boston Red Sox in 2005. She served as vice president of planning and development for the Red Sox, since 2002, when the Henry-Werner Group purchased the franchise. She directs the renovation and area planning for Fenway Park. Since 2002, the team has added capacity, created space for fan amenities, and improved infrastructure and amenities in the ballpark and along surrounding streets.

Smith brings her experiences in urban development and architecture, and passion for design to these endeavors as she has previous projects, including Atlanta's Philips Arena (1999) and Turner Field (1997), Baltimore's Oriole Park at Camden Yards (1992), Pershing Square in Los Angeles (1988), and Battery Park City in New York (1984).

Smith's work with the Red Sox complements efforts she began in 2000 as vice president of planning and development with Struever Bros., Eccles, and Rouse, a Baltimore-based real estate developer and builder of urban mixed-use projects from Nashville to Providence. Smith has also worked on various commercial and residential projects for Struever Bros., including the revitalization and transformation of former industrial areas, including historic buildings, to vibrant urban communities. She was part of the THINK team, led by Frederic Schwartz and Raphael Vinoly, one of the final two teams in the competition for the World Trade Center site in New York in 2002.

Smith's combined loves of baseball and city life served her well in Atlanta, where she was president of Turner Sports and Entertainment Development, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, and was vice president of planning and development for the Atlanta Braves baseball team. During her tenure, projects that came to fruition included the 20,000-seat Philips Arena, home of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and NHL's Atlanta Thrashers; a renovation of the CNN Center; improvements to the area surrounding Centennial Olympic Park; and the design and conversion of Atlanta's 1996 Olympic Stadium into Turner Field, the home of the Braves.

From 1989 to 1994, Smith was with the Baltimore Orioles as vice president for planning and development, under Larry Lucchino's leadership. As a team they oversaw the design of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. She was responsible for much of its civic image and relationship to surrounding buildings and transportation. Smith's efforts to impose urban planning and design on the world of sports have helped change the way America views sporting venues and helped to make them proven generators of area economic development.

Prior to her tenure with the Orioles, Smith was based in Los Angeles, directing the redevelopment of Pershing Square—downtown's oldest park. From 1981 to 1984, she worked in New York as coordinator of architecture and design for Battery Park City, a 92-acre, $3 billion waterfront development project at the tip of lower Manhattan that includes the World Financial Center.

Smith holds a master's degree in urban planning from City College of New York and a bachelor of architecture degree from Mississippi State University. She is an associate member of the Urban Land Institute, American Institute of Architects, and the American Planning Association. Major publications, including the New York Times, New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Esquire, have cited her work.

A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Smith resides in Baltimore with her husband, Bart Harvey, and three children.