Michelle Martel

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Date of Lecture: November 18, 2026

Abstract

Wolfram Hoefer’s new book Suburban Cultural Landscapes: Planning and Design for Place Identity investigates the concept of cultural landscape and its role for planning and design in the suburban context. The presentation will highlight how suburban settlement patterns in the U.S. and in Europe have been shaped by two very different suburban narratives: the American Dream narrative of individualistic suburban dwellers versus the European Rural Village narrative of the inherited cultural landscape. Suburban development in four metropolitan regions are analyzed and compared: Vienna/Austria, Budapest/Hungary, the Ruhr Region in Germany, and New Jersey’s Northeast Corridor. These regions have in common the fact that land use decisions are based on principles of property ownership in capitalist economic systems within a democratic framework. However, there are also differences: The American suburb forms a culturally distinct zone between city and open landscape. This suburban zone is smaller around Budapest and Vienna, where the countryside (conceived as an idealized cultural landscape) starts right at the urban edge. Similarities in settlement patterns between New Jersey and the Ruhr Region are shown to be related to industrial development. These different cultural narratives impact land use planning and design approaches on cultural landscapes within the suburban context.

Bio

Dr. Wolfram Hoefer is a Professor at the Rutgers Department of Landscape Architecture. He received is doctoral degree from the TU München and serves as Director of the Rutgers Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability (CUES). He developed numerous community outreach projects in the field of adaptive re-use of brownfields, urban resiliency, and infrastructure.

His current research explores underlying cultural narratives that shape planning and design approaches to cultural landscapes within the suburban context. He is lead editor (with Arianna Lindberg, Angela Oberg, Sebastian Schlecht, and Frank Gallagher) of the book: Climate Bridge. An international perspective on how to enact climate action at the government public interface. Rutgers University Press 2025. His theoretical research goes hand in hand with community outreach. Recent projects include Middlesex County Cultural Landscape and Ecosystems Service Plan, New Brunswick Parks Action Plan, and advising Drumthwacket Foundation on restoration and long-term management of Drumthwacket Estate, the official residence of the governor of New Jersey in Princeton.

Dr. Hoefer has lectured at national and international conferences and academic institutions. Among his honors are the 2021 Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture National Teaching Award and a 2018 NJASLA Merit Award, Landscape Planning from the New Jersey Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Web Page: Wolfram Hoefer – Rutgers Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability at Rutgers SEBS

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Date of Lecture: September 16, 2026

Bio

Megan Lotts is an artist, educator, and visionary academic librarian whose work reimagines libraries as dynamic spaces for creativity, connection, and play. She is the author of The Playful Library: Building Environments for Learning and Creativity (2024) and Advancing a Culture of Creativity in Libraries: Programming and Engagement (2021). As Art Librarian and faculty at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Lotts brings an interdisciplinary approach to librarianship by blending scholarly research, art, and imagination to create inclusive and inspiring learning environments. She collaborates across the visual arts, humanities, landscape architecture, and other disciplines, supporting faculty and students through research instruction, creative programming, and innovative collection development. Widely recognized for her pioneering work advancing creativity and play in academic libraries, Lotts’s scholarship explores how maker culture, experiential learning, and hands-on exploration can transform information spaces into living laboratories for innovation. Through her teaching, research, and artistic practice, she invites people to engage with art in unexpected and participatory ways, reflecting her belief that libraries are not only repositories of knowledge but also catalysts for collaboration, experimentation, and joy. 

Abstract

Creativity thrives on curiosity, experimentation, and play. Discover how art, making, and playful thinking can spark fresh ideas, strengthen collaboration, and inspire new approaches to teaching, research, design, and everyday challenges. Together we will explore simple, accessible practices that can help cultivate a more creative life at work and beyond. 

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Date of Lecture: September 30, 2026

Bio

Brian is nationally recognized as a leading thinker in the fields of urbanism, housing, and sustainability, and oversees the firm’s design direction and research initiatives. Brian was named a Pew Fellow in the Arts in 2011, lectures widely and has taught urban housing at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania for over a decade. Brian holds a B.S. in Environmental Design from the University of Oklahoma and an M.Arch from UPenn. ISA has leveraged the opportunities and challenges of its home city to drive a busy, innovative and thought-leading practice that takes on the complex context of the post-industrial American city. The firm’s work has been featured in ARCHITECT, Architectural Record, DWELL, Metropolis, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Times, and on NPR Radio. ISA has won over fifty local, regional, and national design citations, including five AIA National Housing Awards and was named 2020 Firm of the Year by AIA Pennsylvania.

Abstract

Meantime is a non-profit organization that began as an ISA initiative seeking to activate underutilized storefronts in service of urban communities. Working between the real estate industry, city government, land owners and neighborhood stakeholders, the organization’s mission is to activate spaces that facilitate connections, test ideas, reach new audiences and support local economies. Meantime explores multiple parallel paths of action including event curation, pop-up tenant occupations, partner collaborations and advocacy.

Meantime on Market is the largest and most visible project of this kind we’ve ever done — an entire block of storefronts on the 900 block of Market Street, in partnership with the City of Philadelphia and the Center City District, activating for three months this summer. It’s a tremendous opportunity to show what can be done in vacant spaces in the meantime, and to demonstrate the power of face-to-face, in-person interactions in city and community building.

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April 22, 2026

Join us this Wednesday for our last common lecture of the semester, where our landscape architecture student club will be presenting what they have done over the course of the Spring 26’ term!   We will also take a moment to recognize Professor Kate John-Alder and extend our heartfelt thanks for her years of dedication, as she prepares for her upcoming retirement. 

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April 15, 2026

Abstract

Teaneck Creek Conservancy (TCC) is a member-supported nonprofit that stewards over 45 acres of restored wetlands and floodplain forest in the Overpeck Park System in Bergen County, New Jersey. Science-driven management of the restored wetland is a priority for TCC. In this talk, I will share ways that Rutgers students have contributed research to support management at TCC. And in the process, students have gained experience collecting and analyzing data, as well as communicating science to a general audience. Student projects have included vegetation monitoring, tracking invasive species, and understanding patterns of iNaturalist usage by visitors. In addition to Rutgers projects, I will also highlight several of other programs in progress at TCC.

Bio

Allyson Salisbury, Ph.D. is an assistant teaching professor of urban forestry at Rutgers University-New Brunswick in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources. In addition to teaching, she studies how to help trees and other plants thrive in towns and cities. She is the recipient of the International Society of Arboriculture’s 2025 Early-Career Scientist Award. Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty, Allyson worked as a post-doc at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL and Rutgers-Newark.

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Margaret O. Cekada Memorial Lecture
April 8, 2026

Abstract

How might the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals relate to a peripheral neighborhood in Lisbon, Portugal? At first consideration, the connection may seem negligible. However, Zambujal, a public housing project built between 1972 and 1986, offers a relevant case study for examining the local articulation of the 17 Global Goals.
Shaped by a multicultural population of Portuguese migrants, Cape Verdean immigrants, and Roma communities, Zambujal experienced significant social challenges during the 1980s and 1990s. With the new millennium, a generational shift emerged as younger residents pursued education, entered the workforce, and assumed leadership roles
In 2021, during global lockdowns, two non-profit associations initiated a project to transform Zambujal into a “social neighborhood” aligned with the Global Goals. The initiative combines street art, community engagement, sustainability education, and environmental awareness to foster social cohesion.

Bio

Mário Linhares likes to link art with community projects. In drawing, he uses the sketchbook as a tool to explore new ways of drawing. Has two bachelor’s degrees, one in Landscape Design and one in Industrial Design, an M.A. in Visual Arts Education, and a Ph.D. in Fine Arts, with a specialty in Drawing. A professor in Lisbon, he’s a member of the Research Center and Studies in Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon. Linhares started Urban Sketchers Portugal in 2009, joined the international executive board in 2011, and served as education director until 2019. Author of several books, articles, and essays, contributes drawings to exhibitions, and delivers lectures worldwide.

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You are cordially invited to attend the vernissage of our grad exhibit at the Rutgers Art Library
Voorhees Mall, 71 Hamilton St, New Brunswick
3:30-5:00pm – followed by a reception