Peter Walker
Founder and Partner, PWP Landscape Architecture
http://www.pwpla.com/

"Before the World Trade Center Memorial"

With a career spanning five decades, Peter Walker continues to have a profound international influence on the field of environmental design. He is the founder of PWP Landscape Architecture (formerly known as Peter Walker and Partners), a Berkeley-based landscape architecture firm with a commitment to dynamic and sustainable solutions for constructed systems and environments. Over the years, PWPLA has created numerous prize-winning and iconic designs, ranging from small gardens to complete master plans. Walker served as co-designer with Michael Arad to the National September 11th Memorial, unveiled this past September.

Before founding PWPLA, Walker co-founded the firm Sasaki, Walker, and Associates (est. 1957). His career also includes a significant role as an educator, serving as acting director of the urban design program and chairman of the landscape architecture department at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, as well as head of the landscape architecture department at UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design. He has also served as advisor and consultant on numerous projects, including the Redevelopment Agency of San Francisco and the American Academy in Rome.

Over many years, PWP has explored the issue of horizontality in a number of projects. We see horizontality as a metaphor for the earth, an abstraction of the way we perceive the landscape. Many of these projects — some light-hearted and experimental, others more serious — led to conceptual insights that informed the design at the World Trade Center Memorial in New York City, which Walker will discuss in his lecture.

This event is part of the CED Lecture Series, which features noted visiting academics and professionals from a broad range of environmental design fields. All lectures are free and open to the public.