Stuckeman School to host landscape architect and urban systems advocate

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School will host Kristina Hill, associate professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning and urban design at the University of California, Berkeley, on Feb. 22 at 6 p.m. in the Stuckeman Family Building Jury Space and via Zoom as part of the school’s Lecture and Exhibit Series.

As the 2022-23 recipient of the Department of Landscape Architecture’s Bracken Fellowship, the highest honor given by the department, Hill will present landscapes as dynamic three-dimensional volumes in relation to coastal flooding and the underground infrastructure systems that support cities in her talk titled “Underground Landscapes.” She will also discuss her conclusion that changes in underground conditions will create new opportunities for landscape architects in the next decade.

With a research focus on adaptation to coastal flooding and climate change, Hill employs an approach that includes groundwater mapping and the use of adaptation pathways to develop urban design alternatives. Her primary area of work is in adapting urban districts and shore zones to the new challenges that have arisen with climate change, which has contributed to her work for adaptation plans for a diverse group of U.S. cities, several U.S. federal agencies and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Hill helped to develop new ideas for urban water system design that support salmon health in the Pacific Northwest. She served as the head of a transit agency in Seattle due to her interest in urban system advocacy.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Hill became a member of the Dutch-American engineering and design team that developed a water management strategy for New Orleans. She also collaborates internationally to understand designs that help protect coastal communities amid rising sea levels.

Hill’s book, “Ecology and Design: Frameworks for Learning,” was published by Island Press in 2002 and her current book proposes adapting urban waterfronts to climate change while incorporating productive ecosystems. She was featured in a documentary about urban flooding titled “Sinking Cities” on PBS, as well as on a national podcast, “Hidden Brain.”

At UC Berkely, Hill is the director of the Institute for Urban and Regional Development. She was previously a faculty member at MIT, the University of Washington in Seattle and the University of Virginia, where she also served as chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture.

Hill was a fellow of the Urban Design Institute in New York and has conducted research in Stockholm, Sweden, as a Fulbright Scholar. She earned her doctorate from the Harvard University.

For those attending the lecture remotely, pre-registration is required via Zoom.