ABOUT THE LECTURE SERIES: 

Harlow O. Whittemore (1889-1986) was a nationally recognized leader in landscape architecture and community planning, and served as professor and chairman of the Department of Landscape Architecture and City Planning at the University of Michigan. He received his master's degree in Landscape Design from the University of Michigan in 1914 and was invited to join the landscape architecture faculty the very same year, serving until his retirement in 1958.  In addition to his prominent role at U-M, Whittemore was instrumental in developing the concept for the Huron-Clinton Metropark Authority.

Along with a colleague, Henry Curtis, Whittemore developed the concept of a park system along the Huron and Clinton Rivers from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie in 1936. The Harlow O. Whittemore Lecture series at SNRE was established in 1977, named in honor of Professor Emeritus Whittemore. The endowment fund for the Harlow Whittemore Lecture was established with gifts from many of Professor Whittemore's family, friends and former students.

2013 Speaker:

Laurie Olin, founding partner of the landscape architecture and urban design firm OLIN, delivers this year's Whittemore Lecture on Tuesday, March 26, at 5 p.m. in Rackham Amphitheater. The title of his lecture is "Sustainable Cities: New Name, Old Topic."

His firm received the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Landscape Design in 2008, and in 2010 was on the winning team in the competition to design the new United States Embassy in London with architects KieranTimberlake. He is a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, an American Academy of Rome Fellow, an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the 1999 Wyck-Strickland Award recipient, and a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).

Olin won the Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture in 1972, was the recipient of the 1998 Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was recently inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has written widely on the history and theory of architecture and landscape, receiving the Bradford Williams medal for best writing on Landscape Architecture. Olin co-authored La Foce: A Garden and Landscape in Tuscany, which includes a historical essay, along with photographs, sketches, and a critical analysis of the early 20th century garden in Italy.

Across the Open Field (2000), is both a memoir and series of essays on the evolution of the English landscape. He is also the author of Transforming the Commonplace (1996) and Vizcaya: An American Villa and Its Makers (2006, with Witold Rybczynski), on James Deering's mansion in Coconut Grove, Florida.

PAST WHITTEMORE LECTURES:

• 2012: This Whittemore Lecture featured a panel discussion on the topic: "Landmark Women in Landscape Architecture." The Institute for Research on Women and Gender was a co-sponsor. The panelists were:

  • Barbara Faga, first woman to be principal designer in EDAW, and then on the board of the largest design build firm in the world, AECOM, when EDAW was sold to AECOM.  Designer of the Atlanta Olympics site plan.  
  • Linda Jewell, one of the four women landscape architecture faculty in the nation in 1975. Former chair of the LA programs at Harvard and Berkeley. Co-editor of the forthcoming book, "Women in Landscape Architecture: Essays on History and Practice."
  • Darwina Neal, first woman to be president of the American Society of Landscape Architects, first chair of the ASLA Committee for Women, longtime landscape architect in charge of national park service design and management in Washington, D.C.
• 2011: Cynthia Girling, professor of Landscape Architecture in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of British Columbia,
  
• 2009-2010: As part of its 100th anniversary celebration of the Landscape Architecture program, SNRE organized the Harlow O. Whittemore Panel Discussion during the fall 2009 celebration. The discussion was titled "Reflecting on the Past, Designing for the Future." Four alumnií¢—Andi Bullock Cooper (MLA '00), Lisa Delplace (MLA '88), Eugene Herbert (MLA '81) and Ted Wolff (MLA '9)—shared their thoughts and experiences in a wide-ranging discussion that addressed the evolution of the discipline, its current role and the role of landscape architects in the future of a more sustainable society.
• 2009: Rosa Grena Kliass, principal, Rosa Grena Kliass Paisagismo Planejamento e Projetos Ltda.
• 2008: Randall Sharp, a landscape architect with Sharp & Diamond LLC
• 2007: Kenneth Helphand, professor of landscape architecture at the University of Oregon
• 2006: Walter Hood, professor of landscape architecture at the University of California, Berkeley
• 2004: Lisa Delplace (MLA 1988), principal with Oehme, van Sweden & Associates in Washington, D.C.