Mia Lehrer lecture

Mia Lehrer | Mia Lehrer + Associates

Mia Lehrer is the founding principal of Mia Lehrer + Associates, a Los Angeles-based landscape architecture practice. Lehrer utilizes “advocacy as a design tool” to incorporate education and community participation in the conceptualization of her firm’s projects, thereby ensuring their longevity with the help of an informed public.

In her Current Work lecture titled “Recalibrating the City: Advocacy by Design,” Lehrer discusses several Los Angeles-based projects that address challenges at various scales—from a monumental undertaking to revitalize the concrete laden Los Angeles River to community park projects that invite spontaneous shared uses. Within this discussion, Lehrer talks about how she works within alternative channels of influence, like those of non-profit community organizations, to design public spaces, that are sensitive to existing natural systems.

In this lecture, Lehrer discusses the following projects:

• Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan, Los Angeles, CA
• Piggyback Yards, Los Angeles, CA
• Union Station Master Plan, Los Angeles, CA
• CleanTech Corridor, Los Angeles, CA | 2010
• North East LA River Collaborative Placemaking Plan, Los Angeles, CA
• LA-Más, urban design non-profit, Los Angeles, CA
• Hollywood Park, Inglewood, CA
• Vista Hermosa Park, Los Angeles, CA | 2008
• Nature Lab, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County | 2012

The lecture is followed by a discussion with Kate Orff, the Director of the Urban Design program at Columbia University GSAPP. She is also a registered landscape architect and founder of SCAPE, a design firm based in New York City.

The Current Work series invites significant international figures who powerfully influence contemporary architectural practice and shape the future of the built environment to present their work and ideas to a public audience.