Spotlight on Design: Lafarge and National Building Museum Announce Lecture

Lafarge North America and the National Building Museum are pleased to announce that this year's third Spotlight on Design lecture will be held on Wednesday, Apr. 3, 2013 with prominent urban design and landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg, FASLA. The program is presented in April in celebration of National Landscape Architecture Month.

Spotlight on Design is an ongoing series that features architects and designers of distinction from around the world. Since its inception in 1997, the series has hosted many of the world's premier design voices in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning and design, including Pritzker Prize Laureates Tadao Ando, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, I.M. Pei, Glenn Murcutt, and other acclaimed designers. Lafarge has been the corporate sponsor of Spotlight on Design since 2001.

M. Paul Friedberg is a landscape architect, planner, educator, product designer and author who has received various national and international accolades for his revolutionary contributions to the aesthetic environment of urban life. A graduate of Cornell University, Friedberg has been awarded the AIA Medal in recognition of his influence on the architectural profession and the ASLA Design Medal, which is the highest honor the American Society of Landscape Architects may confer upon a landscape architect for a body of exceptional design work. In 1958, he established M. Paul Friedberg and Partners, one of today's best-known interdisciplinary landscape architecture, urban design and planning firms whose work has been recognized with more than 90 professional awards.

"Our societies are becoming increasingly urbanized and the challenge facing both urban designers and architects is how to harmonize infrastructure and landscape to meet the needs of this growing urban population," said Olivier Biebuyck, senior vice president of marketing for Lafarge. "Through our partnership with the National Building Museum, Lafarge makes a commitment to advance consideration of these urban development issues which are vital for the future."

During his speaking engagement, Friedberg will review his career spanning a seminal period in landscape architecture when the profession entered the city and began to invent the American urban space in projects that include Peavy Plaza in Minneapolis and Yards Park in Washington, D.C. He will be joined by Bradford McKee, editor of Landscape Architecture, to discuss the important role of landscape architecture in the creation of people-centric places. The lecture is scheduled for Wednesday, April 3, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the National Building Museum, 401 F Street NW, Washington, D.C. To attend the event, register online at go.nbm.org/spotlight.

During the past several years, more than 30,000 individuals have attended lectures through the Spotlight on Design series, with audiences ranging from professionals, policymakers and students to the general public. The series is also a great opportunity for design professionals to achieve continued education training through the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Continuing Education System (CES). For those not local to Washington, D.C., the lecture series and interviews with individual architects dating back to 2006 can be accessed online by visiting the National Building Museum's website at www.nbm.org.