Galloway lecture series to bring urban planning experts to Lawrence

Cervero, professor of city and regional planning at the University of California, Berkeley, will speak from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 15 in the Hancock Ballroom of The Oread Hotel, and from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 16 at the Kansas City Design Center in Kansas City, Mo. Cervero’s lectures will focus on transportation investments, place-making and economic development.

For cities to compete in the global marketplace and appeal to amenity-minded, high-skilled workers, they must strike a balance between road infrastructure and quality-of-life, Cervero said. “Transit-oriented development with attractive walking environments improves environmental quality and boosts economic development,” he said.

Plater-Zyberk, dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Miami and a principal in the firm Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company, Architects and Town Planners, will speak from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sept. 9 in the Hancock Ballroom of The Oread Hotel. She is known as a founder of new urbanism, a style of design that seeks to end suburban sprawl and urban disinvestment.

Sharon Perry Galloway of Lawrence and Roswell, Ga., and her family, established the lecture series in memory of her husband, Thomas Galloway, who died in 2007. Thomas Galloway was the founding chair of the graduate program in urban planning in KU’s School of Architecture, Design and Planning, where he was a professor from 1971 to 1980. Sharon Perry Galloway established the lecture series through KU Endowment to bring speakers to the university who are leaders in architecture and urban planning.

As a professor, Thomas Galloway encouraged his students to deepen their understanding of the present by studying social, cultural, economical, environmental, ideological and philosophical entities. He charged his students to go out into the world and change it with a sense of responsibility and humility.

Kirk McClure, professor of urban planning at KU, said students will benefit from meeting with architectural and urban planning leaders such as Cervero and Plater-Zyberk.

“We want these lectures to be the opportunity for our students to connect with the thought leaders in planning,” McClure said. “We expect this lecture series to create pivotal moments in their education.”

After leaving KU, Galloway held a faculty position at the University of Rhode Island. He later served as dean and professor in the College of Design at Iowa State University. In 1992, he was named dean of the College of Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Galloway was well-known for establishing partnerships with Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Architecture de Paris LaVillette in France and the Shenyang Technological University in China. He chaired a team that reviewed a new College of Engineering and Design at the University of Abu Dhabi and served as an urban planning consultant to the Sheik.

During his career, Galloway was honored academically and professionally. He was listed among the “30 Leaders Who Bridge Practice and Education” in America’s Best Architecture and Design Schools, published in the 2005 edition of Design Intelligence, and was named a Lexus Leader of the Arts by Public Broadcasting Atlanta.

In April 2009, Michael Arad, designer of the National September 11 Memorial at the World Trade Center, was the inaugural speaker for the lecture series.

Other entities providing support for the lectures include the Kansas Chapter of the American Planning Association, the Kansas City Section of the American Planning Association, TranSystems, and the School of Architecture, Design and Planning.