KINGSTON, R.I. -- Sept. 11, 2002 -- The University of Rhode Island’s Community Planning and Landscape Architecture fall lecture series begins Sept. 19 and features nationally recognized architects and designers.

Sponsored by the Department of Community Planning and Landscape Architecture, the lectures address the theme "Vision in Landscape: Looking In, Looking Out." All programs will begin at 7 p.m. in the White Hall auditorium on the Kingston Campus. The lectures are free and open to the public.

William D. Warner, president of William Warner Architects and Planners, kicks off the series Sept. 19 with a lecture discussing "The River and the Highway - A Vision for Providence." His firm’s design for the River Relocation Project in Providence received a Waterfront Center Honor Award for collaboration between designers and project sponsors to create a design that has educational, environmental and economic values.

Warner Architects and Planners has received more than 40 national and regional honors and awards for its projects since 1959. Projects include the visitor’s center for the national wildlife refuges in southern Rhode Island, Rhode Island College’s performing arts center, Waterplace Park, and the Providence Waterfront Project.

The rest of the lecture series is as follows:

Thursday, Oct. 10 - Laura Solano, principal at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, will speak on "Hyper-Nature in Design." Solano is responsible for the design of numerous landscape design and planning projects and is also a professor of site grading and material technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Thursday, Oct. 24 - John Amodeo, senior associate at Carol R. Johnson & Associates, will discuss "Sustainable Design: Who is Leading of the Charge?" His firm is internationally recognized for their work designing park facilities and new towns and open space plans for academic, medical and correctional institutions. The firm is currently working on the expansion of the University of Utah Hospital and is developing master plans for the Alaska Botanical Garden and the American University in Cairo.

Thursday, Nov. 14 - Nicholas Quennell, principal of Quennell, Rothschild & Partners, will present "Public Landscapes, Private Dreams: Treading the Fine Line Between Tradition and Trouble." Quennell, Rothschild and Partners specializes in creating and restoring award-winning parks and open spaces, including the Hudson River Park and Central Park’s Children’s Zoo.

For more information about the lecture series, call the Department of Community Planning and Landscape Architecture at 874-2249 or email wagre@uri.edu.

Media contact: Todd McLeish, 401-874-7892, Sarah Emmett. 401-874-2116