KINGSTON, R.I. — October 7, 2009 – The University of Rhode Island’s Landscape Architecture Lecture Series continues on Oct. 15 with a lecture by Cynthia Smith, a principal in the Halvorson Design Partnership in Boston. Her talk on “Creating Compelling Urban Landscapes” begins at 7 p.m. in Weaver Auditorium in the Coastal Institute building on the URI Kingston campus.

The event is free and open to the public.

Smith is a landscape architect for several award-winning urban design, waterfront, campus and park projects including Post Office Square Park, City Square Park and Nashua Street Park in Boston. She is a design principal for several major campus planning and design projects, including the Harvard Law School NW Corner project and five new garden spaces at the new MIT Sloan School Campus, both under construction, and projects at Franklin and Marshall, Boston College, and Emma Willard School.

Her current work includes major design improvements to the multi-use path system for the Charles River Basin landscape and bridges, the design of the new Riverside Park on the Charles River in Cambridge, restoration of the historic Cambridge Common, and the recently completed pier improvements at the new Marine Mammal Center for the New England Aquarium.

Other speakers in the URI Landscape Architecture Lecture Series Michael Blier of Landworks Studio on Nov. 19; Ben Uyeda of Free Green on Feb. 18; URI Professor Angelo Simeoni on March 11; URI Professor Will Green on April 1; and Michael Manfredi of Weiss/Manfredi on April 22. All talks begin at 7 p.m. in Weaver Auditorium of the URI Coastal Institute in Kingston.

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, the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association, and Gates Leighton & Associates. For more information about the series, contact the URI Department of Landscape Architecture at 874-2983 or Professor Will Green at wagre@uri.edu.