Research

In his scholarship, Hess explores metropolitan form and urban planning practice and policy, sometimes interactively and sometimes separately, but always as a means to improve city functions and urban life. His research contributes to discussions that seek to re-evaluate relationships between transport, housing, and land use to address various pressing societal concerns, including pollution, congestion, and metropolitan sprawl. He accomplishes this by focusing his intellectual inquiry on connections between transportation and land use planning and resulting impacts on health, environment, and social aspects of community. Through spatial analysis of urban phenomenon, he examines connections between urban public policy, population groups, and built environments with a focus on equity in access to transportation, housing and essential services. 

Hess’s research spans urban planning history and post-socialist urban space, which he has developed in Estonia and the Baltic States as a Fulbright Scholar in 2011 and in 2016-2017 as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Centre for Urban and Migration Studies at the University of Tartu, Estonia. During his time there he researched how the legacy of town planning and the wide-ranging effects of various occupations affect local and national planning systems and planning practice. Additionally, he has sought to understand housing systems and historical and current population dynamics to explore the effects of inherited segmentation from Soviet times.

His research has been supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the National Science Foundation, the Federal Transit Administration, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, and Easter Seals Disability Services. Hess was part of a team that explored design concepts and programs for adding transit-oriented development along Buffalo’s Metro Rail corridor. He managed a grant from the Mineta Transportation Institute to investigate the barriers that keep older adults from riding traditional fixed-route transit. He also directed a grant from the Federal Transit Administration to investigate how public involvement can be used to expand alternative transportation financing schemes and a grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority on the implementation of sharing programs for e-bikes.

He is the author of dozens of peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals. Hess is currently editor-in-chief of the journal Town Planning Review (Liverpool University Press) and section editor of the journal Discover Cities (SpringerNature). He is the editor of four books: Housing Estates in Europe: Poverty, Ethnic Segregation and Policy Challenges (SpringerNature, 2018); Housing Estates in the Baltic Countries: The Legacy of Central Planning in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (SpringerNature 2019); The Life and Afterlife of Gay Neighborhoods: Renaissance and Resurgence (SpringerNature 2021); and The Shoup Doctrine: Essays Celebrating Donald Shoup and Parking Reforms (Routledge/Taylor and Francis, 2026). 

Teaching

The recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Hess has taught core courses in the environmental design bachelor’s program, directed award-winning studios in the Master of Urban Planning program, and led eight study abroad courses in England, Estonia, Latvia and Russia. A dedicated teacher and mentor, Hess engages students in all aspects of his research, including collection of primary data and the design and implementation of analysis methods. Hess’ continued connection with graduates of the program keeps his teaching and instruction current while building professional networking opportunities for students.