KINGSTON, R.I. – November 6, 2007 – Jason Hellendrung, senior associate at Sasaki Associates and a 1996 graduate of the University of Rhode Island, will discuss “Shaping the Public Realm Through Urban Infrastructure” on Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. as part of the URI Landscape Architecture Lecture Series.
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.
Hellendrung is a landscape architect and urban designer with extensive experience as a project manager and senior designer on a wide range of commercial developments, educational projects, and public parks and plazas. Much of his recent work has involved projects that shape cities through public infrastructure improvements, including assessments of security needs, public access, and the integration of transportation into the city. He joined Sasaki Associates in 2001.
Founded in 1953 and based in Watertown, Mass., Sasaki Associates is an award-winning landscape architecture, design, engineering and planning firm that was recognized last month with the 2007 Firm Award by the American Society of Landscape Architects. It won first prize in the international design competition to establish the master plan for the Olympic Green, the main site of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, while also winning the top prize for the Wukesong Cultural and Sports Center, the Olympic venue for basketball and baseball. It also won several awards in 2006 for its Providence 2020 Vision Plan.
In his lecture, Hellendrung will cite two major projects he has worked on — the Euclid Avenue Bus Rapid Transit Project in Cleveland and the Charlotte Blue Line Light Rail System in North Carolina – as examples of “how to address the urban issues that cities are faced with and how they are contributing to shaping the public realm of the cities we live in,” he said.
The rest of the speakers in the lecture series are as follows:
– Feb. 21, Skip Burck, principal of Richard Burck Associates, on “View From the Lodge;”
– March 13, Christian Werthmann, assistant professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, on “Structure: Reclaiming the American Roofscape;”
– March 27, Enrique Norten, principal of Ten Arquitectos, topic to be determined; and
– April 17, 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.