Landscape Architect Martha Schwartz (M.L.A. '78) will give the 2011 JJR Lecture Sept. 27. Schwartz is principal of Martha Schwartz Partners, a leading international practice whose work focuses on activating and regenerating urban sites and city centers. MSP has 20 years of experience designing and implementing installations, gardens, civic plazas, parks, institutional landscapes, corporate headquarters, master plans, and urban regeneration projects.

She received a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Michigan School of Arts in 1973 and her MLA from the School of Natural Resources and Environment in 1978.

Her goal is to find opportunities where landscape design solutions can be raised to a level of fine art. She has more than 30 years of experience as a landscape architect and artist on a wide variety of projects with a variety of world-renowned architects.

Schwartz is registered as a landscape architect in California, Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, New York and Illinois. She is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including the 2009 Honorary Royal Designer for Industry Award from the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce for her outstanding contribution to UK design; the 2006 Cooper-Hewitt Award for her body of work in landscape architecture; an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Ulster in Belfast, Ireland; a fellowship from the Urban Design Institute; several design awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects; visiting residencies at Radcliffe College and the American Academy in Rome; and a recent Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects in London.

Schwartz is a tenured Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She has lectured both nationally and internationally about the landscape, and her work has been featured widely in publications as well as gallery exhibitions. Recent projects include St. Mary's Churchyard, London, UK; Leamouth Peninsula, London, UK; Qatar Petroleum Headquarters, Doha, Qatar; The Children's Centre, Damascus, Syria; Cosmopolitan Casino, Las Vegas, USA; the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona; Master Plan for Lulu Island, UAE; the Swiss Re Headquarters, Munich, Germany; a shopping mall interior and exterior in Frankfurt with MAB Gmbh; urban reclamation and development projects with Urban Splash Developers and English Partnerships as well as on various projects located in Austria, Italy, China, and the UK.