The One River Project proposes a new approach to development along the water’s edge that enhances the natural function of our urban waterways and preserves their economic and cultural uses. The Symposium (see schedule, below) presents design guidelines developed for the Blackstone Valley with scientists, developers, policy makers and designers. The One River Project is a program of Rhode Island Economic Policy Council and the Rhode Island School of Design’s Center for Landscape Urbanism & Ecology and CityState, the Urban Design Lab at RISD. It is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. Admission to the lecture and symposium is free, but seating is limited. RSVP: mlewis@risd.edu.

One River Project Symposium | April 12 + 13, 2007

Evening Lecture — April 12, 6pm
Julie Bargman, D.I.R.T. Studio
Bayard Ewing Building, 321 South Main Street, Room 106, Providence
Julie Bargmann is internationally recognized as an innovator in regenerative environmental design and interdisciplinary design education. D.I.R.T. Studio (Design Investigations Reclaiming Terrain), of which she is the principal, excavates the potential of degraded landscapes. At the University of Virginia, Bargmann’s investigative studios challenge the restrictive policies and conventional remediation practices that plague Superfund sites and Brownfields. Bargmann teaches critical site-seeing as a means to reveal multiple site histories and to offer renewal for communities in tired and toxic surroundings. Bargmann’s honors include a Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum’s 2001 National Design Award. CNN, Newsweek and other national and international design publications have recognized her as a leader of the next generation of designers. Bargmann, was named one of Time’s “100 Innovators — The Next Wave” in the category of Architecture and Design. The work of D.I.R.T. Studio includes collaborations on a proposal for New York’s High Line Project, a public park in a former Pennsylvania coal mine, and the creative reattribution of a landfill in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Symposium — April 13, 9am-4pm
Featuring Ann Breen of the Waterfront Center
Conley’s Wharf, 200 Allens Avenue, Providence
Ann Breen is co-director and president of the Waterfront Center, a non-profit research corporation located in Washington, DC which she co-founded in 1981. The Waterfront Center has consulted with over 100 communities of all sizes in 38 states, six provinces of Canada, and 10 countries overseas on urban and regional planning and environmental design. Breen lectures and organizes annual conferences and technical workshops on planning and development. From 1975-1983 Breen was waterfront coordinator, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Coastal Zone Management. She has co-authored with Richard Rigby several books including Intown Living: A Different American Dream (2004); The New Waterfront: A Worldwide Urban Success Story (1996); WATERFRONTS: Cities Reclaim Their Edge (1994.); and Caution Working Waterfront: The Impact of Change on Marine Businesses (1985).