#BUCPUA hosts inspirational speaker on landscape architecture
At #BUCPUA, the month of June kicked off with an inspiring visit from Cheri Ruane, whose passion for landscape architecture was conveyed in her lecture, “Cases and Elements of Landscape Architecture in Practice: From Complete Streets to Historic and Cultural Preservation”. Ruane is President of the Boston Society of Landscape Architects and Vice President of Spurr | Weston & Sampson’s design studio.
Adjunct faculty member Ayako Maruyama (MET’13) invited Ruane to the Urban Affairs 580 course, The Boston Experience: Role of Architecture in Creating Sense of Place. Maruyama holds a Master of City Planning degree and is the creativity lab design lead at the Design Studio for Social Intervention in Roxbury.
“Cheri Ruane has been so generous in sharing the complexity of projects she has worked on with honesty, humility and humor! I am grateful to be able to collaborate with her again and bring her brilliance and energy into the room. She comes at time when students of this course are opening their senses to how architectural elements affect their experiences and as they begin deeper analyses of their surrounding built environment,” shared Maruyama.
“Whatever we design, we are designing it for people,” said Ruane. This statement resonated with Xueer Liu (MET’17), a student of Maruyama and candidate in the Master of City Planning program.
A graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Ruane has been awarded numerous accolades, including awards from the American Planning Association and Boston Society of Landscape Architects for her work on parks, open space designs, master plans, and a river walk.
“Cheri Ruane shared an honest and passionate perspective of her experience as a landscape architect, letting us in on her “secret” that you don’t have to be perfect (and admitting that is fine). The best approach to any design or planning strategy is to be iterative and inclusive of all in order to form a shared vision,” Jeannine Stover (MET’16) shared.
“I think that we as planners or members of our own communities don’t have to accept what exists. She very thoughtfully explained that many people feel that they have to accept a space for what it is, simply because that is the way it has always existed. If something doesn’t work, change it so that it does, and for the best benefit of everyone.” Stover is a candidate in the Master of City Planning program, and she now contemplates a profession in landscape architecture.
Guest lectures in BU Urban Affairs courses are now open to all friends of the Boston University City Planning and Urban Affairs program; enrollment in the host course is not a requirement for attendance. These lectures are advertised on the #BUCPUA Urban Planning Association Facebook page and Program website. Opportunities to engage with field professionals are highly valuable for either full-time students or mid-career professionals eager to join city planning and landscape architecture professionals in the Greater Boston area.
– Courtney Thraen (MET’17)