At Proformus, the block is our unit of thought. Every city, district, and corridor resolves to the same essential piece: one block, four corners, and the decisions made on each of them.
We think by block, four corners at a time. It's how cities are actually built — and how vision-scale work stays grounded in the corner-scale details where people live it.
The planners and designers at Proformus work at the intersection of place, pattern, and placekeeping. We listen first, draw second, and measure success in places people love — joining community voice with development reality so neighborhoods grow without losing themselves.
What Guides Our Work
We don't talk at people to plan — we listen to them.
Engagement is participatory spatial analysis. The community tells us what the map misses, and that knowledge carries the same weight as any dataset we bring to the table.
Joy is a planning tool.
We gamify engagement and design memorable experiences because people give their best ideas when they're having a good time. Delight isn't decoration — it's how honest input gets gathered.
Placekeeping before placemaking.
Every neighborhood is already someone's place. We start by honoring what a community is — its people, institutions, and stories — and build toward what it wants to become, not what a rendering says it should be.
Rules should guide emergence, not prevent it.
Cities aren't designed once; they emerge block by block, decision by decision. We write codes, strategies, and plans that adapt as neighborhoods reveal what they need next.
Community Engagement
We lead with joy to gamify and create memorable experiences that gather community input and aspirations — then combine this with geospatial mapping to understand physical ramifications.
- Engagement Strategy & Facilitation
- Participatory Mapping & Pop-Up Events
- Stakeholder & Steering Committee Coordination
- Tactical Placemaking
- Visual Storytelling & Graphic Design
Development Strategy
We understand market and real estate conditions to project realistic, actionable scenarios for developers and municipalities — then actualize them.
- Development Scenario Planning
- Feasibility Studies & Infill Pro Formas
- Site & Market Analysis
- Economic Development Strategies
- Housing Prototypes & Missing Middle Design
Urban Planning
We work in a design language to create and craft experiences for neighbors and municipalities — and enact implementable best practices.
- Neighborhood & District Vision Plans
- Corridor & District Frameworks
- Campus & Institutional Master Planning
- Urban Design & Concepts
- Public Realm & Open Space Strategies
Codes & Ordinances
We work across the country with staff to balance resident priorities and development pressures, crafting development in its best form — and illustrating it in an accessible way.
- Zoning Strategy & Policy Alignment
- Zoning Code Audits & Rewrites
- Form-Based Codes & Design Guidelines
- Entitlement & Rezoning Support
- Specialized Toolkits (Urban Agriculture, Adaptive Reuse)
Who We Are
Proformus is led by founder Jeffery Tompkins, an Indianapolis-based urban planner and designer whose practice bridges policy, design, and the built environment — from a single lot to an entire district.
Jeffery's path runs from a global design firm — where he worked at the Design Director level on projects spanning continents — to co-leading planning for the Indy Health District, the largest planned health innovation district in the Western Hemisphere. Working at that scale taught him a counterintuitive lesson: the power of thinking big comes from thinking small. Districts don't succeed as renderings; they succeed block by block, four corners at a time.
Proformus was built on that lesson. Around its core, the practice assembles collaborator teams tuned to each project — spanning engagement, market analysis, zoning policy, and graphic design.
Meet the Practice →