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Making Good Places: Planning for the Unknown


Logo for the 10.11.12 lecture series.

January 5, 2012 – The University of Utah’s College of Architecture and Planning (CA+P) lecture series “10.11.12” continues spring semester at The Leonardo.

The spring series will cover the challenges and opportunities inherent in planning cities—ecological systems that change in real time and under volatile conditions that cannot be perfectly predicted.

The lecture series—entitled “10.11.12” for the ten lectures by the college’s ten urban planning professors—began in November 2011 and will continue through October 2012. All presentations begin at 5:00 p.m. and are held at The Leonardo science, technology and art museum at 209 East 500 South in Salt Lake City. The lectures are free, and the public is welcome.

January 19, 2012

The Evolution of Urban Form
Brenda Scheer, dean, College of Architecture + Planning

By observing a place for a long time – say, a hundred years or a thousand years –
one can study the things that change and the things that stay the same. Like all cities, Salt Lake City has a unique plan that has affected its long-term growth and development, but just as important, will continue to have an effect for a long time into the future. How do buildings, patterns of streets, and other urban elements shape and limit a city? Brenda Scheer will use the history of Salt Lake and many other examples to describe urban evolution.

February 2, 2012

Cities as Museums of Change
Stephen Goldsmith, associate professor, Department of City & Metropolitan Planning

Viewing cities as ecological systems that are fluid not static, Goldsmith will explore the dynamic ways places change in real time, as well as how places perform and people perform in those places. The lecture will include film and video, examples of installations by artist and planner Candy Chang, guerilla gardening, and examples from world cities that are adapting to current challenges.

March 8, 2012

Bounding Uncertainty: Scenario Analysis and Peak Oil
Keith Bartholomew, associate professor, Department of City & Metropolitan Planning

Planning is often based on a single set of assumptions about the future, even though the future is unknowable. Bartholomew reasons that in an era of increasing volatility in global environmental and economic conditions, a new structure that incorporates uncertainty is needed. Scenario analysis, a method already familiar to planners, could be adapted to provide such a framework.

April 19, 2012

Good Urbanism
Nan Ellin, professor and chair, Department of City & Metropolitan Planning

Despite having the knowledge, tools and will to make good places, successfully developing that kind of environment is still often challenging and too rare. To get beyond the challenges requires only “the willingness to go somewhere new,” says Ellin. She will discuss a process that has been used to successfully “clear the path” of obstacles and produce good urbanism.

ABOUT THE U’S COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING:

The College of Architecture + Planning (CA+P) at the University of Utah facilitates an educational community of students, faculty  and staff with interests and expertise in creative design, building, planning, computer technology, issues of social and ecological responsibility and the scholarly study of the history and theory of the built landscape. CA+P educates future professionals who are concerned with constructing and maintaining the highest quality in built and natural environments.

The Department of City & Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah is a vibrant community of students and faculty committed to exploring and guiding quality planning and development of our cities and metropolitan regions.