Landscape Architecture Spring 2026 Lecture Series: Matthew Urbanski

This lecture will draw from thirty years of experience designing urban waterfronts such as: Allegheny Riverfront Park in Pittsburgh, PA; Brooklyn Bridge Park and Hudson River Park in New York, NY; Pier C Park in Hoboken, NJ; and Gathering Place in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

At MVVA since 1989, Matt has planned and designed waterfronts, parks, college campuses, and gardens in North America and across the world. Matt’s work is inspired by the power of landscape to affect the way people feel, and he is devoted to making landscapes that draw on the unique capacities of each site.

For 25 years, Matt taught an ecological approach to planting design at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. As the son of a family physician and a painter and ceramicist, Matt believes that making landscapes is a matter of both wellness and artistic expression. 30 years ago, Matt and his father founded Red Hill Nursery, a specialty plant farm that grows hard-to-find species that are unusual in shape and character. Matt graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Albright College. He also studied horticulture at Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture and earned a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.