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KINGSTON, R.I.—March 3, 2008—Christian Werthmann, associate professor of landscape architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, is the next speaker in the URI Landscape Architecture Lecture Series on March 13 at 7 p.m. His presentation is entitled “On Structure: Reclaiming the American Roofscape.”
The event will be held in Weaver Auditorium in the Coastal Institute building on URI’s Kingston campus. It is free and open to the public.
Werthmann began his career at Latz and Partners in Germany while also teaching landscape design at the Technical University of Munich. He moved to the United States in 1997 and joined Hargreaves Associates in San Francisco, where he worked in multiple large-scale projects including the 2000 Sydney Olympics and Chrissy Field, a waterfront park in San Francisco.
Before joining the Harvard University staff, Werthmann was an associate at Peter Walker and Partners where he led a series of major design projects, including the award winning Parking Structure #4 at Stanford University, the new California State Campus at Merced, and the master plan for the San Jose International Airport.
Werthmann’s current research revolves around the design implications, constraints and opportunities of incorporating living infrastructure like green roofs, rain gardens and constructed wetlands in heavily urbanized areas. Portions of his research resulted in the book Green Roof: A Case Study.
The rest of the speakers in the lecture series are as follows:
– March 27, Leonard Mirin, associate professor at Cornell University, on “French Connections: Linking the Past to the Future Through Parks in Paris;”
– April 10, Patricia O’Donnell,. principal of Heritage Landscapes, on “Sustaining Places We Value in the 21st Century”
The URI Landscape Architecture series is co-sponsored by the College of the Environment and Life Sciences, the Rhode Island chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association. For more information about the series, contact the URI Department of Landscape Architecture at 874-2983 or Professor Will Green at wagre@uri.edu.