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ABSTRACT
Nodes, Edges, and Districts: Landscape Infrastructure for the City in Crisis
This lecture revisits Kevin Lynch’s city form-making elements as the primary framework for deploying resilient, multifunctional infrastructure in the face of contemporary urban challenges. Rather than viewing these as mere navigational markers or spatial frameworks, the lecture presents nodes, edges, and districts as elements of a multi-scalar landscape strategy to address the widespread environmental and social instability characterizing cities today.
BIO
Steven T. Lee is a landscape architect, urban designer, and planner based in New York City, with a passion for crafting meaningful and resilient public spaces. As a Design Principal at SWA/Balsley, he directs complex public realm projects domestically and abroad including waterfronts, urban parks, civic plazas, campus landscapes, and urban districts. Steven engages closely with clients, interdisciplinary teams, and designers across experience levels to foster shared creativity and develop innovative solutions. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Claremont McKenna College and dual master’s degrees in Landscape Architecture and City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to practice, he has contributed to design education as a lecturer at Cornell University and a guest critic at numerous universities throughout the US.