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August 26, 2013 9/11 Memorial Designer, Peter Walker Kicks Off Church Lecture Series

Peter Walker, the internationally acclaimed landscape architect who designed the National September 11 Memorial, will be at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, on Sept. 16 to kick off the Robert B. Church III Memorial Lecture Series.

The series brings recognized architects and designers to UT to present their work. Free and open to the public, the series also includes exhibitions and films.

All events will be held at the Art and Architecture Building, 1715 Volunteer Blvd. Lectures will begin at 5:30 p.m. and films will be shown at 8 p.m. in the McCarty Auditorium. The exhibitions will be featured in the Ewing Gallery and Gallery 103. Webcasts of the lectures are also available at https://tiny.utk.edu/church-lectures.

Walker, a partner in PWP Landscape Architecture in Berkeley, Calif., won an international competition to design the memorial that commemorates the victims of the terrorist attacks at the Pentagon, at Shanksville, Pa., and at New York City’s World Trade Center. The competition drew 5,201 submissions from 63 nations.

The memorial, which sits in the footprints of the Twin Towers, consists of two gigantic voids and recessed pools surrounded by a forest of oak trees.

Walker’s work ranges from the design of small gardens to the planning of cities, and includes emphasis on corporate headquarters, plazas, cultural gardens, academic campuses, and urban-regeneration projects.

An exhibit of his work, titled “Before the Memorial,” is on exhibit now through Sept. 19 at Gallery 103.

Here’s a look at the rest of the Church series:

Visiting Lectures:

  • Sept. 23: Roberto de Leon Jr. and M. Ross Primmer of De Leon and Primmer will present “Recent Work.” The duo works closely with the community and the local traditions of their base-location in Louisville, Ky., emphasizing cultural and civic environments. They will discuss their use of local materials and conventional construction methods in regional projects.
  • Sept. 30: Preston Scott Cohen is the Gerald M. McCue Professor of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design and principal of Preston Scott Cohen Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. His lecture, “Successive Typologies,” will explore syntheses of architectural typographies and geometry. His recent projects include the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Amir Building, the Keystone School Auditorium in Beijing, the Nanjing Performing Arts Center and the Goldman Sachs Arcade Canopy in New York. The winner of several design awards, Cohen is author of Contested Symmetries, the forthcoming Lightfall: The Return of Nature and numerous theoretical essays.
  • Oct. 11: Iñaqui Carnicero of Madrid will present, “On Reuse,” as part of the college’s relationship with SPAIN arts & culture of the Embassy of Spain’s Cultural Office. He’ll use his projects to explore the relationship between architecture and economical contexts. Carnicero’s work has received numerous accolades, including the 2012 Design Vanguard Award from Architectural Record, the 2012 Hauser Award, the 2012 FAD Spanish Architecture and Public Opinion Award, the 2011 Emerging Architecture Award Architectural Review, and the 2009 Rome Prize.
  • Oct. 14: John Christakos, founder and CEO of innovative furniture company, Blu Dot, will present “Design from the Inside Out.” Collaboration is central to Blu Dot’s design process, which strives “to bring good design to as many people as possible.” Christakos will talk about his company’s inventive use of materials, playful sensibility, and fabrication and assembly strategies.
  • Nov. 4: Pavel Zoubok and Rachael Lawe will present “Collage Culture: From Picasso to Facebook.” The pair are from the International Collage Center, an organization dedicated to the research and presentation of collage in its various forms, which provides narrative through collage that is both aesthetic and cultural. The lecture is given in partnership with the UT School of Art.

Exhibitions:

  • Sept. 12–Oct. 21: Fransje Killaars: Color at the Center, the Ewing Gallery
  • Sept. 23–Oct. 10: Roberto De Leon and M. Ross Primmer: Recent Work, Gallery 103
  • Oct. 14–24: Blu Dot: Design from the Inside Out, Gallery 103
  • Oct. 28–Dec. 8: Remix: Selections from the International Center for Collage and Collage Works by Richard Meier, the Ewing Gallery
  • Oct. 28–Nov. 21: Brian R. Jobe: Replies, Gallery 103

Films:

  • Sept 18:  “Traffic” (2000) by Steven Soderbergh
  • Oct. 2: “Crash” (2004) by Paul Haggis
  • Oct. 23: “Amores Perros” (2006) by Alejandro González Iñárritu
  • Nov. 6: “Tree of Life” (2011) by Terrence Malick

Design professionals may receive continuing education credits by attending or viewing the lectures, and students may receive supplemental experience hours in the Intern Development Program of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.

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W E B C A S T S:

To access the webcasts, biographies, and continuing education sections for each lecturer, please visit here. Peter Walker’s presentation will be available for viewing here.

I M A G E S:

Some of Walker’s works are here. They are provided by and credited to PWP Landscape Architecture:

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C O N T A C T :

Kiki Roeder (865-974-6713, kroeder@utk.edu)