Please join the UB School of Architecture & Planning in Hayes Hall to hear our 2022 Clarkson Chair in Planning, Sheila Foster, present “Infrastructure-Sharing in Cities Pre- and Post-Pandemic.”

Sheila Foster, the Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Urban Law and Policy at Georgetown, studies the areas of environmental law and justice and urban land use law. She is well known for her publications including "From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement" (with Luke Cole) and "The Law of Environmental Justice" (with Michael Gerrard).

In her public lecture, Sheila Foster will offer reflections on the diverse ways that cities enabled the creation of shared spaces and structures to provide public benefits and goods during the pandemic. The thesis of the talk is that there is a difference between the creative “placemaking” efforts that occurred on streets, plazas, sidewalks, parks and other open spaces, and the conversion of underutilized public and private structures and land to create tangible goods, such as housing, for specific populations. The distinction between these two kinds of infrastructure-sharing has implications for how cities can address the needs of their most vulnerable and marginal populations while correcting for the legacy of unjust land use practices that have shaped contemporary urban landscapes.

This lecture is free and open to the public. All are welcome to attend a light reception prior to the lecture in the Hayes Hall Atrium Gallery.

Agenda:

• 5 to 5:45 pm - light reception in Hayes Hall Atrium Gallery

• 6 to 7:30 pm - lecture in Hayes Hall, Room 403