Michelle Martel

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Date of lecture: September 17, 2025

PANEL DISCUSSION & BOOK PRESENTATION

Since the 2021 German-US conference CLIMATE BRIDGE, the political leadership of both countries changed. How do the new governments impact climate politics? How do politics affect scientific and professional cooperation between Germany and the US?

Climate change is creating new challenges for spatial and environmental planning on both sides of the Atlantic. Planning and policy must balance moderating climate change impact from rising temperatures, extreme precipitation, and sea level rise with social equity and environmental justice. Climate Bridge compares New Jersey and the German Ruhr region to build an international perspective on how to enact climate action at the government-public interface.

The first section of the book compares international environmental planning approaches and outlines different approaches to common problems. The second section presents case studies that highlight adaptation strategies for uncertainties caused by climate change. Finally, the closing section reminds us of our dependence on ecological systems for physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

Contributors to this landmark volume include planners, designers, scholars, public administrators, and decision-makers on both sides of the Atlantic. Together, the chapters bring interdisciplinary approaches and diverse perspectives to the environmental, economic, political, and social dimensions of planning and design in the context of climate change.

Editor Team

WOLFRAM HÖFER is a professor and the director of the Rutgers Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Rutgers University. FRANK GALLAGHER is an associate professor of professional practice in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Rutgers University. ARIANNA LINDBERG is an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Rutgers University. ANGIE OBERG is chief climate officer in the Rutgers Office of Climate Action. SEBASTIAN SCHLECHT is the founder of lala.ruhr and a lecturer at Technische Universität Dortmund.

Main Content

Date of lecture: September 18, 2024

Abstract

Building on early work developed as a cultural heritage specialist and social scientist with Arup’s integrated urban design practice, Andrew will present a typology of values to guide a discussion of values and valuation – of how social constructs and contexts shape the planning profession and city building process, emphasizing the criticality of public participation – as issues that challenge conventional notions of responsibilities of planning professionals. A key pragmatic question is how might planning professionals (and researchers) identify and characterize a wide range of social and economic values in a manner that informs (or investigates) the planning process as well as policies and planning decisions that are relevant to all participating disciplines and stakeholder groups?

Through the lens of an anthropologist and borrowing that of an economist’s, Andrew will extend a framework of “place valorization” from urban political economy theory to see why and how “value” is extracted from the built environment, developing Logan and Molotch’s (1987) social typology of a “structural speculator” (“place entrepreneurs … that seek to alter the conditions that structure the market”) in contemporary contexts. Using these frameworks, he’ll draw on examples from his past experience and his colleagues’ landscape-design components on international mega-projects with considerable political complexity and intrigue, including the planned but unrealized Dongtan Eco-city in Shanghai (Arup), the Greater Hanoi Construction Master Plan (PPJ Consortium), the London Olympic Park Legacy Master Plan, and a recent proposed smart-city port on Georgia’s Black Sea coast.

Short Bio

Andrew Simmons, a consultant to the Public Finance Initiative for its work with Pew Charitable Trusts, is an urban development strategist and social scientist committed to context-sensitive, integrated approaches to development. As director of urban innovation and sustainability impact with the London-based Resilience Brokers, Andrew works with a variety of local authorities, developers, and multilateral institutions on climate resilience, civic technology, open data policies, sustainability-driven master plans, and market-aligned visions for urban regeneration projects that produce wide-ranging public benefits. 

Past appointments include serving as a project manager contractor on a major mixed-use, mixed-income property development by Eastern Market on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., completed in 2017, and with the PPJ consortium as heritage planner for the Vietnam Ministry of Construction’s Greater Hanoi Capital Master Plan. With Arup, Andrew led a team of social scientists from the Shanghai office for Arup’s world-pioneering, low-carbon planning projects in China, the U.K., and beyond. Andrew has reviewed planning projects at the World Bank and is a guest lecturer at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He holds a master’s in City Design and Social Science from the London School of Economics.

Main Content

Date of lecture: September 11, 2024

Graduate Class of 2025 

Field work is one essential aspect of most research in landscape architecture, understanding a place is at the core of any landscape design. Over the summer, students of the MLA class of 2025 did individual explorations of their study areas, ranging from the Caribbean to Newark. Each student will give a brief 5-minute presentation of major findings and Impressions.  

Image: Aruba, by Sean Murray 

Speakers:

• Dora Calva
• Conor Ferguson
• Laurie Ferreras
• Heather Fortunato
• James Hill
• Sean Murray
• Chiara Ngassa
• Ana Maria Oliynyk
• Shachi Patel