Spanish Architect Benedetta Tagliabue to Deliver Bethune Lecture

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The internationally recognized Spanish architect Benedetta Tagliabue will present the 2008 Bethune Lecture of the University School of Architecture and Planning on April 4.

The lecture will take place at 5:30 p.m. in Room 301 in Crosby Hall on the UB South (Main Street) Campus. It will be free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

Tagliabue and her late husband, Enric Miralles, in 1992 founded EMBT architecture, a firm that has produced unique, daring and expressive designs for a wide range of projects.

Their design for the Scottish Parliament, which was awarded the Stirling Prize from the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2005, has been recognized as the best public building in Scotland.

Tagliabue works in Barcelona where she recently completed two major projects.

Parque Diagonal Mar is a mixed-use development that includes housing, shopping and a convention center that received the American Society of Landscape Architects Award in 2005.

The second project, Market and Quarter Santa Caterina, created an extensive new roofed market space which was described by Architectural Record as "characteristically uproarious… a flying carpet of brilliant colors and agitated forms."

Currently EMBT is working on a series of new projects in Europe and Asia, including the design of the Spanish Pavilion for Expo Shanghai 2010.

The Bethune Lecture is an annual lecture made possible by the joint sponsorship of the American Institute of Architects Western New York and the UB School of Architecture and Planning. It celebrates the life and professional work of Louise Bethune. Bethune, an architect who worked in Buffalo, was the first woman to be elected as a member of the American Institute of Architects.