Anne Whiston Spirn
Landscape Architect, Professor, Author and Photographer
Anne Whiston Spirn is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning at MIT. The American Planning Association named her first book, The Granite Garden (1984), as one of the 100 most important books of the 20th century, crediting it with launching the ecological urbanism movement. Since 1987, Spirn has directed the West Philadelphia Landscape Project (www.wplp.net), whose mission is to restore nature and rebuild community through strategic design, planning, and education programs. WPLP employs landscape literacy as a cornerstone of community development and served as a laboratory for Spirn’s second book, The Language of Landscape (1998). Other award-winning books continued to develop the concept of landscape literacy as part of the larger subject of visual literacy and visual thinking: Daring to Look (2008), and The Eye Is a Door (2014). Before coming to MIT in 2000, Spirn taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard and before that worked at Wallace McHarg Roberts and Todd on diverse projects, including the Toronto Central Waterfront. Spirn is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim fellowship and Japan’s International Cosmos Prize for “contributions to the harmonious coexistence of nature and mankind.” Her homepage is a gateway to her work and activities: see www.annewhistonspirn.com.
Projects: MARNAS | West Philadelphia Landscape Project
Limited space event. Ticket sales begin on March 26th at 12:00 pm.
*Wine and Tea included