Center for Global Humanities sponsors lecture by Harvard Professor Alex Krieger on urban revival in America
On October 25, more than 150 people attended a Portland Campus event featuring Harvard Professor Alex Krieger, who discussed “The New Allure of the City (and Some Unanticipated Consequences).” The lecture was sponsored by the Center for Global Humanities in conjunction with Creative Portland and the Portland Society for Architecture.
Krieger, who served as chairman of Harvard’s Department of Urban Planning and Design from 1998 to 2004 and director of the Urban Design Program from 1990 to 2001, discussed the implications of a national urban revival that is drawing Americans back to the city from places once seen as more hospitable to modern life. He explained how the new attractions of city life are also creating new stresses involving population growth, congestion and rapidly rising costs of living and argued that these effects must be addressed wisely so that they don’t diminish the long-term viability of this civic revival.
Krieger shared insights specific to the city of Portland, Maine, and, in more general terms, presented what he considers the eight characteristics or indicators of civic health: great and diverse places to live, investment in an innovative economy, social and career advantages of propinquity, an overlapping of activities, ample culture choice and diversity, choices for mobility, an emerging ethic of environmental stewardship and distinctiveness in place making.
The event closed with a question-and-answer session with the audience.
To learn more about the Center for Global Humanities, visit www.une.edu/cgh
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