Larry Newman is the founding Executive Director of the Diamond City Partnership (DCP), Wilkes-Barre’s nonprofit downtown management organization, where he plans and leads the revitalization of Downtown Wilkes-Barre. In 2007, he directed the creation of the Downtown Wilkes-Barre Business Improvement District, a DCP-managed special district providing supplemental place management services to Downtown Wilkes-Barre.
An AICP-certified planner, Larry previously worked as the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber’s Vice President of Economic and Community Development. He has also worked in city government and as a planner in private practice.
Larry is the vice chair of 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania and a board member and past chair of the Pennsylvania Downtown Center. He chairs the Wilkes-Barre City Planning Commission and the Wilkes-Barre Industrial Development Authority, and he is a member of several other nonprofit boards.
He co-authored the Society of Architectural Historians’ "Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania," published by the University of Virginia Press in 2010.
In 2021, the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Institute of Architects awarded Larry their Government Award for service to the profession. He is also the recipient of Leadership Northeast’s Award for Outstanding Community Leadership and the North Branch Land Trust's Stewardship Award.
A graduate of Wyoming Valley West High School in Plymouth, PA, Larry received his Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Princeton University in 1990 and a Master of Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1993. He resides in Downtown Wilkes-Barre with his family.