The transformations that the City of New Haven and its environs have undergone in the past, and the region's potential for future change, will be among the topics explored in a special interdisciplinary group lecture featuring four Yale experts on Wednesday, April 2.
The lectures will be presented 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in Bowers Hall of Sage Hall, 205 Prospect St. The event is sponsored by the course "Restoration or Creation: Designing New Landscapes in Old Cities" at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. The course is co- taught by Diana Balmori, lecturer in landscape and urban history at the forestry school, and Aimlee Laderman, lecturer in wetland ecology and research affiliate at the school.
The featured topics and speakers will be:
"New Haven's Structure" by Michael Haverland, assistant professor at the School of Architecture and coordinator of the Yale Urban Design Workshop. In this lecture, Professor Haverland will analyze the physical structures of New Haven -- including the historical evolution of street and block patterns -- and their relationship to geography, landscape, transportation and the city's demographics. He will also how how these inform current land use and future development patterns.
"American Maritime History: New Haven as a Case Study" by Gaddis Smith, the Larned Professor of History. This talk will focus on how the uses of the harbor as well as its borders and hinterlands have been transformed over the centuries by changes in fuel use. Professor Smith will also discuss the interdependence of the harbor, wagon trails, the Farmington Canal and the railroads, as well as the visual hiding of the harbor caused by the construction of the highways.
"Prospects for Restoration in New Haven Watersheds" by Paul K. Barten, associate professor of water resources at the forestry school.
"Urban Nature Preserves for New Haven" by Charles Lee Remington, lecturer and professor emeritus of biology and environmental studies, as well as director of the New Haven Land Trust and New Haven Ecology Project.
A group discussion will follow the lectures, which are free and open to the public.