From the Atlantic Cities

Public spaces are being occupied in cities all over the world, and large parks projects like New York’s The High Line and Chicago’s Millennium Park are bringing renewed public attention to the latent assets sitting untapped in urban areas. For landscape architects and urban designers, these are strong calls to action. For city leaders and citizens, these example show what could become, and also what may be holding their own communities back.

At a panel discussion Tuesday at the American Society of Landscape Architects annual meeting, four designers explored the changing role of design in cities and the importance of urban public spaces. Moderated by John King, the San Francisco Chronicle’s urban design writer, the panel included landscape architect Laurie Olin, Harvard Graduate School of Design landscape architecture program chair Charles Waldheim, landscape architect Martha Schwartz and University of Virginia architecture professor and former Charlottesville mayor Maurice Cox.