URI Landscape Architecture Lecture series continues Feb. 12 with discussion on successful student career paths

KINGSTON, R.I. – February 6, 2015 – The University of Rhode Island’s 2014-2015 Landscape Architecture Lecture Series resumes with URI alumni Nathan Socha (’06) and Cheryl Russ (’05), who will discuss and illustrate their divergent career paths within the profession of landscape architecture.


“It’s a wonderful opportunity for the students to ask all the questions they want to ask of people who sat in the same seats 10 years ago when they were students in the BLA (bachelor’s of landscape architecture) program,” says Professor Will Green, the lecture series’ organizer since 1993.


The lecture, titled ‘Divergent Paths and Common Themes,’ will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 12 in Weaver Auditorium in the Coastal Institute Building on URI’s Kingston Campus. The event is free and open to the public.


At Beta Group Inc. in Lincoln, R.I., Socha works on design projects for roads, campuses and public landscapes. At Glen Gate Company, a large design-build company in Connecticut, Russ works with in-house designers and contractors to install large-scale residential and commercial designs.


“The connection of ‘divergent paths and common themes’ will be reflected through our experiences post college. We both left URI with similar skills, but we have chosen completely different areas to continue to develop within,” says Russ. Socha will illustrate this theme by discussing the differences between three major projects, as well as lessons learned in the field.


Upcoming lecturers this spring will be Robert Golde, partner in Towers/Golde (Feb. 26); Peter Trowbridge of Trowbridge, Wolf, Michael (Mar. 12); MIT Landscape Architecture Professor Anne Whiston Spirn (Apr. 9); and Kaki Martin of Klopfer Martin Design Group (Apr. 23).


All talks are free, open to the public and 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 Rhode Island chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the URI College of the Environment and Life Sciences, the URI College of Arts and Sciences, and Landscape Forms. Anne Spirn’s lecture will be co-sponsored by the URI Art Department. For more information about the series, contact the URI Department of Landscape Architecture at 874-2983 or Professor Will Green at wagre@mail.uri.edu


Emma Clarke, an intern in the Department of Marketing & Communications and a public relations major, wrote this release.