Stuckeman School to host landscape architect and educator for virtual lecture

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School will remotely welcome Claire Latané, a landscape architecture writer, educator and practitioner, at 6 p.m. on Jan. 18 as part of the school’s Lecture and Exhibit Series.

Co-hosted by the Department of Landscape Architecture, Latané will present a Bracken Lecture titled “A Collaborative Model for Designing with Communities” via Zoom. She will discuss the community-driven work she is doing as founder of the Collaborative for Healthy and Inclusive Learning Environments (CHILE) in the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona's Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies. The annual CHILE Studio brings community partners, interdisciplinary collaborators and landscape architecture students together to co-create grant-ready plans that support health, equity and climate-resilience.

In her work and her practice, Latané focuses on pairing designers with communities to create environments that support mental health, equity and climate resilience. She has helped launch local, regional and nationwide initiatives that focus on the mental health, safety, academic success, and physical and social outcomes of students to create healthier spaces at both the school and community levels.

Latané, who is an associate professor and chair of landscape architecture at Cal Poly Pomona, founded the Emergency Schoolyard Design Volunteers in 2020 as part of the National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative.

Latané’s writing has appeared in Landscape Architecture Magazine, The Dirt, Ground Up Journal and The Progressive. Her book, “Schools that Heal: Design with Mental Health in Mind,” was published by Island Press in 2021.

Prior to starting her own consultancy, Lantané practiced landscape architecture for EPTDESIGN and Studio-MLA.