Panel Discussion, Fall 2026 Lecture Series: How Can Landscape Architecture Have Actual Agency?

Join us in 175 Warren Hall for a lecture with our discussion panel guests Michael Grove (principal of Sasaki), Karen Lutsky (assistant professor, Cornell), Matt McMahon (assistant professor, Cornell), and Emma Silverblatt (assistant professor, Cornell).

Michael Grove is a Principal at Sasaki, a global design collective with studios in Boston, Denver, New York, Los Angeles, and Shanghai. Leading much of the firm’s international work, Michael offers insight into the environmental and social impacts of urbanization around the world and is a fierce advocate for the vital role that landscape architects play in shaping contemporary cities. Informed by a rigorous inquiry of economic, ecological, and cultural influences, Michael believes that the role of the designer is to make cities more livable, equitable, resilient, and just. Michael's distinguished career spans a variety of project types and scales including regional planning, urban districts, and waterfronts. He collaborates with clients, consultants, and allied professionals to generate design strategies that are inclusive of financial, cultural, and environmental perspectives. This integrated approach results in visionary solutions that balance development needs with ecological and social imperatives. Michael is a graduate of Cornell University, a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, sits on the Placemaking Council of the Urban Land Institute, serves as a member of the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board, and is a past President of the Landscape Architecture Foundation. His work has been recognized with numerous awards, and he is an avid teacher and mentor, speaking at conferences and universities around the world. 

Karen Lutsky is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at Cornell University and Director/Founder of the Great Lakes Design Labs. She comes to the department from the University of Minnesota where she taught landscape architecture for over nine years and was Director of Undergraduate Studies. Karen’s work and research focus on how landscape architects and designers might better design ‘with' change and more critically engage with resilience inherent in specific landscapes and landscape systems. Over the years, this work has included the development of the design approach, Curious Methods,' a particular emphasis on the ‘quick’ littoral landscapes of the Great Lakes Basin and ‘slow’ growth and cycles of trees and vegetation. Her work with the Great Lakes Design Labs is collaborative and trans-disciplinary working with colleagues, students, and often the larger public through exhibitions, workshops, built projects, competitions, and symposiums.

Matt McMahon is a contextually driven thinker, strategist, and interdisciplinary designer. He is drawn to overlooked landscapes, people, and ideas with an eye toward perception, craft, and contemporary notions of nature. As an Assistant Professor, his mentorship and scholarship draw upon nearly twenty years of professional experience in landscape architecture, applied ecology, and architecture, delivering ambitious works across North America. Most recently he directed Snøhetta’s teams on the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, The Blanton Museum of Art, and improvements to the gorge trail in Watkins Glen State Park. Over the course of a decade with Snøhetta’s New York practice, he shaped both the landscape architecture discipline and overall studio, grounding work within the discourse and terrain of the Americas. Previously, he practiced with Stan Allen, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Hargreaves Associates, Grimshaw Architects, and Great Eastern Ecology. 

Emma Silverblatt, AIA, is an architect and educator whose approach shifts architecture’s point of origin from abstract models to situated relationships, testing how design can expand access and facilitate spatial agency. Her research centers affordable housing and public space as typologies systematically underserved by design. At Cornell she teaches theory and community-engaged studios and serves as editor-in-chief of the Cornell Journal of Architecture. As principal and cofounder of the multidisciplinary firm post-, Silverblatt extends architectural practice through action research, technological integration, events, and installations.