Lecture Series

LeFrak Lectureship

The annual LeFrak Lectureship is supported by a generous grant from the late Samuel J. LeFrak, who was a leading planner-developer headquartered in New York City. For 40 years, LeFrak headed the Lefrak Organization, which built 200,000 houses and apartments throughout New York City. His philanthropic generosity spanned health, education, the arts, youth and the poor. Each year the lectureship features a scholar who has made significant contributions to literature on city and regional planning issues. Previous lectureships:

• 2006: Tim Beatley, Professor of Sustainable Communities at the University of Virginia, "Green Urbanism"

• 2005: Delores Hayden, Professor of Architecture, Urbanism and American Studies, Yale University, “The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History”

• 2004: William H. Frey, Visiting Fellow, The Brookings Institution, “How Immigration and Domestic Migration are Transforming America’s Demographic Landscape”

• 2003: Jerold S. Kayden, Associate Professor, Harvard University School of Design, “Privately Owned Public Space: Repairing the [New York City] Law’s Troubled Marriage”

• 2002: Chester Hartman, President and Executive Director, Poverty and Race Research Action Council, The Planner as Social Justice Activist”

• 2001: Robert Cervero, Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, University of California at Berkeley, “Transportation and Urbanism: Sorting Out Ideology from Empiricism”

Carl N. Ruskin Memorial Lecture

The program sponsors an annual Carl N. Ruskin Memorial Lecture on “The Neighborhood and the City.” Local planners and other members of the public are invited and the lectures are held in Baltimore to attract professionals who work there. Previous lectures:

• 2006: Thomas Knoche, Department of Urban Studies and Community Planning, Rutgers University, “Lessons I Thought Our Profession Had Learned”

• 2005: Tyler Gearhart, Executive Director of Preservation Maryland, 2005, "Historic Preservation and the Future of Baltimore"

• 2004: Timothy D. Armbruster, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Goldseker Foundation, 2004, “Helping Neighborhoods Work: One Funder’s View”

• 2003: Odette T. Ramos, director of the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance, "Vital Signs for Baltimore Neighborhoods”

• 2002: John M. Carpenter, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, “Urban Vacant Land: Crisis and Opportunity”

• 2001: Henry Sanoff, AIA, Distinguished Professor of Architecture at the School of Design, North Carolina State University, “Designing Schools with Community Participation”

Saturday Seminars

Each semester, Urban Studies and Planning sponsors a series of Saturday Seminars in Baltimore. In these seminars, practitioners discuss topical projects and issues; students visit community-based projects and meet community leaders.