Upcoming Public Programs: UB School of Architecture and Planning

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning has announced several lectures, discussions and seminars for late October and November that focus on new methods and formats of practice in architecture and planning.

All events, part of the school's annual series of public programs, will take place at 5:30 p.m. in 301 Crosby Hall, UB South Campus. They are free of charge and open to the public.

On Thursday, Oct. 25, Walter Hood, the world-renowned landscape architect and artist who designed the Solar Strand on UB's North Campus, will present "Power Strands." Hood's design of the 3,200-panel photovoltaic array, inspired by the way pairs of molecules entwine to form DNA strands, now stands as an iconic campus gateway, a land art installation and one of the most publicly accessible energy sites in the world. Hood is founding principal of Hood Design in Oakland, a firm committed to issues that address the reconstruction of urban landscapes within towns and cities. He also is professor of landscape architecture, environmental planning and urban design at the University of California-Berkeley.

On Oct. 31, Li Xiaodong, principal, Li Xiaodong Atelier, Beijing, will present a talk titled "Iconic or ?: Regional Practice within Global Context." It is sponsored by the UB Confucius Institute.

Xiaodong is a practicing architect, educator and researcher on architecture, and chairs the Architecture Program at the Tsinghua University School of Architecture, Beijing. He received the 2010 Aga Khan Award for Architecture for his famous "Bridge School," an elegant structure that forms a bridge over a creek between two castles and serves as school, bridge, playground, theater and spiritual center for a remote village in the Chinese province of Fujian.

On Nov. 7, Edward Blakely, UB's 2012 Clarkson Chair in Planning, will speak to "Katrina's Lessons: Of Failed Levees and Failed Institutions."

Blakely is one of the world's leading scholars and practitioners of urban policy, and an international disaster-recovery expert. The former executive director of recovery management for the city of New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Blakely now serves as honorary professor of urban studies at the United States Studies Center, University of Sydney. He chronicled the controversial Katrina recovery and his role at the helm of that process in his recently released book, "My Storm: Managing the Recovery of New Orleans in the Wake of Katrina," which will be the subject of his talk at UB.

On Nov. 14, Martin Felson, partner in UrbanLab, Chicago, will conduct a moderated discussion, "Growing Water: A Conversation with Students and Faculty," with Laura Garófalo, UB assistant professor of architecture. This event is sponsored by the American Institute of Architecture Students.

Felson says the United Nations estimates that two-thirds of the world's population will be facing water shortages by 2025. In Chicago alone, he says, residents currently extract about 1 billion gallons of water a day from the Lake Michigan Basin without any reuse. In response, he and his partner, Sarah Dunn, have developed a progressive solution known as "Growing Water" -- a plan for eco-boulevards throughout Chicago that will use natural ecosystems to filter and then return 100 percent of the water extracted from the Lake Michigan Basin by the city's residents.

In addition to these lectures and events, the school presents a free public exhibition each month in the Hayes Annex A Gallery (behind Hayes Hall) on the UB South Campus. "Reconstructing Practices" is on exhibit in October and "Studies from William Huff's Graduate Workshops" will be presented in November. The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.