Architect Carol Ross Barney to Present 'Making Future Cities Livable' Lecture on Nov. 12

Kate Joyce Studios

The new Chicago Riverwalk is a major public amenity at the river level along lower Wacker Drive, extending from Michigan Avenue west to Lake Street.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Carol Ross Barney will present a lecture at 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12, in Ken and Linda Sue Shollmier Hall, Room 250 of Vol Walker Hall, on the University of Arkansas campus, as part of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design lecture series.

Ross Barney, FAIA, has been in the vanguard of civic space design since founding Ross Barney Architects in Chicago in 1981. With a career that spans more than 40 years, she has made significant contributions to the built environment, the profession and architectural education. As an architect, urbanist, mentor and educator, she has relentlessly advocated that excellent design is a right, not a privilege.

In her lecture, "Making Future Cities Livable," Ross Barney will discuss how architects are uniquely positioned to lend their expertise as problem solvers to confront big problems for living in cities, shaping the overall built environment for the good of many. These issues go beyond the function and aesthetics of a singular building to encompass urban planning, public policy and neighborhood development.

The thoughtful planning and design of places that stitch a city together is critical to the livability and economic viability of cities. Taking a comprehensive view of the commitment to improve civic spaces, Ross Barney will focus on new work, improvements to existing infrastructure and design of new infrastructure, the creation of new programming centered around these spaces and the architect's role in facilitating this development.

Ross Barney's body of work occupies a unique place within the panorama of contemporary architecture, being exclusively composed of work in the public realm. Her projects vary in type and scale, but uphold a deep commitment to the role architecture plays in life quality. This has manifested itself in spaces that transition urban dwellers from point A to point B and enrich the metropolitan experience; to buildings that are environmental stewards, showcasing sustainability in an overtly compelling way; and to spaces that inspire young children and the brightest minds of tomorrow to learn, invent and break boundaries.

She received her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Following graduation, she served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica planning national parks. She teaches an advanced design studio at Illinois Institute of Technology-Chicago, where she also serves on the College Board of Overseers.

Ross Barney's work has been honored with more than 100 major design awards, including six national American Institute of Architects Institute Honor Awards, more than 40 AIA Chicago Awards, two AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Project Awards, the AIA Chicago Lifetime Achievement Award, the AIA Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture and the AIA Illinois Gold Medal, all for a distinguished body of work. She was named as a "Gamechanger" by Metropolis magazine in 2018.

For nearly two decades, Ross Barney Architects has been working along Chicago's rivers. These efforts include the design of the Chicago Riverwalk and studies on the city's 150 miles of riverfront with the goal of reconnecting people with the dynamic and changing life of the city's natural resources.

Some of Ross Barney's other notable projects include the McDonalds' Chicago Flagship Restaurant, Chicago Transit Authority's Cermak-McCormick Place and Morgan Street Stations, Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation Synagogue, James I. Swenson Civil Engineering Building, Oklahoma City Federal Building, Bloomingdale (the 606) Trail Master Plan, and design of schools for Chicago and communities across the country.

This is the Mort Karp Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects.

The school is pursuing continuing education credits for this lecture through the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects.

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

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