Creative Cities - Lutmastraat 266

Evert Verhagen (1955) is founder and owner of Creative Cities. He has worked as a project manager in a wide variety of public space and regeneration projects. Based on his experiences with cities and projects he gives lectures on Universities and he is a frequently invited speaker at conferences throughout the world. He works as a coach, likes to be your advisor or consultant for a relatively small as well as for a huge regeneration project.
He holds a degree in Hydrology. When still a student at the University he was a member of the local council in Amsterdam. After he finished his studies he started to work for the city of Amsterdam in 1986 and worked in different capacities for that city until 2014. After starting Creative Cities in 2004 he worked in places like Casablanca (Morocco), Moscow (Russia), Nova Friburgo (Brazil) and Paris (France). In the Netherlands he worked in The Hague (Binckhorst), Rotterdam (Hofbogen), Eindhoven (Strijp S), Utrecht (Merwedekanaalzone), Hengelo (Creative Factory) and many others.

From 1990 till 2005 he was the project manager for the award winning Westergasfabriek regeneration project. With this project he won the Golden Pyramid in 2004, the Dutch government award for excellent project management. The Culture park Westergasfabriek was nominated in 2007 for the International Urban Landscape Award (IULA). The project won the Landscape Institute Award (UK) in 2007. In 2010 the Culture park Westergasfabriek also won the Europa Nostra award.

Evert Verhagen worked as interim director for Hofbogen BV in Rotterdam, he advised the city of Casablanca on the reuse of a vacant abattoir, he worked as advisor for the province of Overijssel on the cultural reuse of their industrial heritage and organised a two year learning course for the Dutch Governmental Building Agency. He has been advising on many different park projects around the globe, like Hiraya park in Tel Aviv, Zaryadye park in Moscow or Rio Capibaribe Park in Recife.

Evert wrote the book Creativity and the City (2003). He also contributed as an author to Creative City Perspectives (2009) and New Ideas for Old Buildings (2009). In 1988 he wrote his first book: Van Bijlmermeer tot Amsterdam Zuidoost.
Evert Verhagen is a speaker on many conferences throughout the world. His main topics are creativity, cities and regeneration.

He is member of the advisory board for Stenden University in Leeuwarden. He is member of the board for Huis van Betekenis in Utrecht, and chairman of the board at CITIES foundation in Amsterdam.