Matt Urbanski - Plane Trees to Plain Trees - and Beyond: A Personal Horticultural Odyssey from the Cornell Hort Depa

MHG Meetings

Sponsored By: Metro Hort Group

Matt Urbanski

Plane Trees to Plain Trees - and Beyond: A Personal Horticultural Odyssey from the Cornell Hort Department to Designing Parks and Gardens in New York City

Michael Van Valkenburgh recalls the intersection of horticulture and landscape architecture at Cornell University, where he received his first degree, and how the atmosphere there influenced the horticultural and ecological foundation of his work on current and ongoing projects. A series of snapshot summaries of some of his New York projects, including Segment Five of Hudson River Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park, highlight his design philosophy and its successful execution.

Michael Van Valkenburgh is the founding principal of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc., Landscape Architects, with offices in Brooklyn, NY, and Cambridge, MA. Throughout his career, he has championed the experiential possibilities of the living landscape and the potential for landscape methodologies to influence urban development in ways that promote social and environmental sustainability. In addition to leading his firm, he is currently the Charles Eliot Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

Matt Urbanski
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.,
Landscape Architects, PC
16 Court Street, 11th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11241
tel: 718.243.2044
fax: 718.243.1293
www.mvvain.com