Boston Flora

Tag: Catherine Seavitt

  • Friday, May 8, 9:00 am Eastern – Mid-Atlantic Plant Research Conference, Live & Online

    Plants in the mid-Atlantic region, as well as the Northeast, are facing new challenges to their survival, growth, and reproduction due to a variety of threats, including land use change, habitat loss, climate change, and more. Invited speakers will address new research in plant science that can help us understand the challenges at hand in our wetland and coastal regions, including mechanisms of plant resistance and adaptation, and possible solutions.

    Speakers will include:

    Morgan Gostel, Director of Plant Science, Morris Arboretum & Gardens
    LeeAnn Haaf, Director of Estuary Science, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary
    Dr. Jay Kelly, Co-Director, Center for Environmental Studies, Raritan Valley Community College
    Erin Lacour, Biologist, John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge
    Patrick Megonigal, Associate Director for Research, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
    Catherine Seavitt, Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Pennsylvania

    The program will be held in person at the Morris Arboretum & Gardens; live virtual attendance is also available. Please indicate ‘In-Person’ or ‘Virtual’ attendance at registration. Lunch is provided to all attendees. Visit https://www.morrisarboretum.org/see-do/events/mid-atlantic-plant-research-conference

  • Wednesday, December 1, 12:00 noon – Soft Infrastructure

    The final lecture for the Fall season of The Environmental Institute will be presented Wednesday, December 1, at noon at 105 HLLS North, Procopio Room at University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  Catherine Seavitt, Principal, Catherine Seavitt Studio, and member of the faculty at Princeton University School of Architecture, will discuss the Palisade Bay Project, a proposed adaptive transformation of the Upper Bay of New York Harbor in the face of climate change and global sea level rise. This collaborative research imagines a “soft infrastructure” for the Upper Bay, rethinking thresholds of water, land, and city, and challenging the “hard” infrastructure of storm surge barrier solutions to flooding. “Soft infrastructure” strategies work to alternatively buffer or absorb flooding, while also creating a new destination on the water. The work, published in the book On the Water: Palisade Bay (Hatje Cantz, 2010) is the result of a two-year research project funded by The Latrobe Prize, a biennial research grant awarded by the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects for collaborative research. This work served as the inspiration for the workshop and exhibition “Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront,” which opened at the Museum of Modern Art in March 2010, and is currently on exhibit as part of the U. S. Pavilion exhibition Workshopping: An American Model of Architectural Practice at the 2010 Biennale di Architettura in Venice, Italy.

    For directions and more information, log on to www.umass.edu/tei/TEI/LectureSeriesFall2010.html