Landscape Architect Tori Kjer to Present 'Parks for People' Lecture on Jan. 29

Courtesy of Tori Kjer

Children play at Benito Juarez Park, located on the edge of the Los Angeles River, in Maywood, California.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Tori Kjer will present a lecture at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 29, in Ken and Linda Sue Shollmier Hall, Room 250 of Vol Walker Hall, on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville, as part of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design lecture series.

Kjer is the program director for The Trust for Public Land's Los Angeles Program. She guides the organization's diverse work across Los Angeles County, improving the quality of life for Angelenos through new and improved green alleys, urban parks and open spaces. She is the 2018 Verna C. Garvan Distinguished Visiting Professor in Landscape Architecture in the Fay Jones School.

In her lecture, titled "Parks for People: Stories of Park Design and Landscape Architecture Advocacy from Los Angeles," Kjer will discuss how high-quality parks and close-to-home open spaces provide a wide range of benefits to urban residents and cities themselves, including economic, physical and mental health, community-building and environmental benefits. The Trust for Public Land (TPL) works to ensure everyone has access to a great park within a 10-minute walk of their home and easy access to green spaces and wilderness. In urban areas, TPL works in low-income, park-poor neighborhoods to create and improve parks and remake unused, polluted alleys into green public spaces.

Kjer will share her experience as a landscape architect and advocate working at TPL, including her community engagement process, ways communities can participate in designing parks, and opportunities for landscape architects to advocate for underserved communities and champion the value of the public spaces. She will also discuss working with communities to design and build new parks and green spaces.

Kjer holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from California State Polytechnic University, in Pomona, and is a registered landscape architect. She is passionate about community-based creative placemaking and is directly leading efforts to design, develop and implement innovative ways to strategically integrate multi-benefit greening projects throughout the county's system of urban parks and trails.

This lecture has been approved for health, safety and welfare continuing education credits through the American Institute of Architects.

The public is invited to attend. Admission is free, with limited seating.

For more information, contact 479-575-4704 or fayjones.uark.edu.