In remembrance of Edward D. Stone, Jr., a beloved colleague, mentor, partner, advisor, and friend, the University of Florida’s Department of Landscape Architecture hosts an annual lecture in his honor. Ed founded the firm EDSA in Fort Lauderdale in 1960, and he taught extensively at the University of Florida for several decades. This prestigious lecture serves to commemorate Stone’s numerous contributions to the fields of landscape architecture and land planning.
Kona A. Gray
Grounded Landscapes – Exploring the Land,
Sea and Culture
Our shared environments connect us in more ways than we can imagine. The special memories we hold for a place are rooted in the land, sea, and culture. The earth that brings us together is often underappreciated for its majesty. The lecture will discuss the importance of celebrating the environment towards curating experiences that support all species and the planet. Ultimately, we have a remarkable opportunity to shape the environment to benefit Earth and humanity. So, how will we design Grounded Landscapes?
Speaker Biography | View the Recording
Martha Fajardo P.
Landscape Initiatives Journey: Connecting people, building collaboration, and inspiring human places
The landscape is a shared vision in which and to which a vast array of encounters converge and contribute. Interest and support for regional and local landscape initiatives are gaining global adhesion. We may have different approaches to landscape initiatives – each culture and community may have a different understanding of the concept – but there can be no doubt that landscape initiatives/projects can be the basis for improving both cities and the global environment.
Speaker Biography | View the Recording
Chelina Odbert
Putting the ‘Public” Back in Public Space
Because of the virtues carried within its name, public space tends to evade the type of serious critical attention to which it ought to be subject. In professional circles, public space is given this matter-of-fact definition: “an area or place that is open and accessible to all peoples, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age, or socio-economic level.” In reality, though, public space tends to be actually open and accessible to just a privileged few.
Speaker Biography | View the Recording
Walter Rodriguez Meyer
Landscape-Led City Making: Disturbance Based Design for Atmosphere and Ethnosphere
Walter Rodriguez Meyer is a landscape and urban designer, educator, and community organizer for climate justice. He is co-founder of Local Office Landscape and Urban Design (LOLA), based in Brooklyn, New York. The firm has garnered accolades from across the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, public policy, science and art. Walter teaches at Parsons The New School for Design and holds a BLA from the University of Florida and MLAUD at Harvard Graduate School of Design. Walter is also the executive director of the non-profit Coastal Marine Resource Center.
Speaker Biography | View the Recording
Marc Treib
Landscape as Sculpture, Sculpture as Landscape
Marc Treib is a Professor of Architecture Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and a historian and critic of landscape and architecture. He has published widely on modern and historical subjects in the United States, Japan, and Scandinavia. His most recent books are Landscapes of Modern Architecture: Wright, Mies, Neutra, Aalto, Barragán (Yale, 2017) and The Landscapes of Georges Descombes: Doing Almost Nothing (ORO, 2019).
Speaker Biography | View the Recording
Gary Hilderbrand
Living Surface
Gary Hilderbrand, the 2017 winner of the American Society of Landscape Architects Design Medal, is a principal of Reed Hilderbrand Associates LLC in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is also the Peter Louis Hornbeck Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he has taught seminars and design studios since 1990. His firm has been recognized with more than eighty regional and national design awards.
Speaker Biography | View the Recording
Thomas L. Woltz
Time, Place and Story: Design at the Crossroads of Ecological and Cultural Systems
Over the past two decades of practice, Thomas Woltz has forged a body of work that integrates the beauty and function of built forms with an understanding of complex biological systems and restoration ecology. NBW projects create models of biodiversity and sustainable agriculture within areas of damaged ecological infrastructure and working farmland, yielding hundreds of acres of reconstructed wetlands, reforested land, native meadows, and flourishing wildlife habitat.
Speaker Biography | View the Recording
Gerdo P. Aquino
Infrastructural Futures
Gerdo Aquino is the firm-wide CEO of SWA based in Los Angeles, an award-winning global practice operating on the leading edge of landscape architecture, urban design, and planning. With 20 years of professional experience, he has had much success in solving a wide range of environmental landscape design problems for projects where open space, density, and place-making are key issues, and he has gained a thorough understanding of the public review process, which often includes extensive cultural, historical, public art, and public participation components.
Speaker Biography | View the Recording
Laurie Olin
Global, Regional, Local: Re-examining ‘Regionalism’ and ‘Genius Loci’ in an Effort Toward Meaningful Landscape
Laurie Olin is a distinguished teacher, author, and one of the most renowned landscape architects practicing today. From vision to realization, he has guided many of OLIN’s signature projects, which span the history of the studio from the Washington Monument Grounds and the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, The Getty Center in Los Angeles to Bryant Park in New York City. His recent projects include the AIA award-winning Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Simon and Helen Director Park in Portland, Oregon.
Speaker Biography | View the Recording