Stuckeman spring lecture series continues with landscape designer, educator

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School’s spring Lecture and Exhibit Series will continue on at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 13, with a visit from Jean Yang, landscape designer, urban planner and educator.

Titled “Community in Landscapes,” Yang’s talk will discuss how humans create their built environment and how it, in turn, shapes them. The lecture, which will take place in the Stuckeman Family Building Jury Space and via Zoom, is a Department of Landscape Architecture Bracken Lecture.

“Grounded in a community-led process, my work seeks to address inequity and climate change by examining how we use, modify and re-think our public spaces,” Yang said.

By explaining her work on projects such as the Los Angeles County Parks Strategic Plan, the Our County sustainability plan, SoFi stadium, Destination Crenshaw and the Upper Los Angeles River Plan, her lecture will discuss how open space can bring attention, funding and green havens to neglected communities.

Yang is currently an assistant professor of landscape architecture at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. She has worked as a senior associate at Studio-MLA and has taught at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and the University of Oregon as a Spatial Justice Fellow.

Yang’s work focuses on design-driven, equity-focused, benefits-based landscapes. She has analyzed, designed and advocated for public space in historically challenged areas. Her projects include Destination Crenshaw, a 1.3-mile open-air museum dedicated to preserving the history and culture of African Americans; the Upper Los Angeles River and Tributaries plan, which will provide new and enhanced open spaces to more than one million people; and the Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan, which aligns one of the largest landowners in Los Angeles with the fight for justice and equity.

Yang received the Azure Award for Urban Design Vision, the Southern California American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Merit Award and the National ASLA Honor Award. She has a master’s degree in urban planning from UCLA, a master of landscape architecture degree from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree in economics and government from Cornell University.

Events in the 2023-24 Lecture and Exhibit Series are free and open to the public.