BLACKSBURG, Va., April 9, 2004 – If a tree needs to grow in Brooklyn — or Blacksburg — landscape architect James Urban has a plan. Urban is a nationally recognized expert in the installation of trees in an urban environment and is credited with introducing many standards relating to urban tree plantings.
Urban will serve as opening speaker of the 2004 Virginia Tech Landscape Architecture Department Symposium to be held in celebration of the department’s 30th anniversary during National Landscape Architecture Week. Urban will present his talk at 10 a.m. Thursday, April 15 in Squires room 341. He is being sponsored by the department, the student chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the Community Design Assistance Center.
Urban owns his own architecture firm and specializes in landscape projects in the Washington, D.C.-metropolitan area. He has created landscape designs for clients like the National Geographic Headquarters and the Hirshhorn Museum Plaza. His institutional clients include the National Gallery of Art, the National Park Service and the Smithsonian Institution. He has worked on many architecturally and historically significant properties including the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art and the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials.
Urban is a registered landscape architect in New York, Maryland, and Virginia, and a graduate of New York State College of environmental science and forestry.
Funding for his presentation is provided by a Virginia Department of Forestry grant. For more information, contact Kim Watson, Community Design Assistance Center, at (540) 231-5644 or kiwatson@vt.edu.