Landscape Architect Michael Van Valkenburgh to Give Public Lecture

October 25, 2007

Landscape architect Michael R. Van Valkenburgh will give a free public lecture, "Teardrop Park, Bailey Plaza and Other Recent Projects of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates," at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 8, in 112 Chambers Building on the Penn State University Park campus. Van Valkenburgh is the fourth speaker this year in the Department of Landscape Architecture's Bracken Lecture Series.

Van Valkenburgh is Charles Eliot Professor in Practice in Landscape Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. As lead principal of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc., he has designed a wide range of projects, including public parks, civic landscapes and institutional landscapes. Among his numerous awards, Van Valkenburgh was a recipient of the 2006 Award of Excellence from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) for his Alumnae Valley restoration, "From Brownfield to Greenfield: A New Working Landscape for Wellesley College Wrenched from Its Toxic Past," and the 2003 Cooper Hewitt's National Design Award for environmental design from the Smithsonian Institution. In addition, he was a Design Fellow at the American Academy in Rome.

Contact: Brenda Ross, blb1@psu.edu