The University of New Mexico NEWS RELEASE |
 |
Contact: Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920 Sept. 5, 2008 Upper Rio Grande Cultural Landscapes Focus of UNM Lecture The University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning features Santa Fe County Planner Arnold Valdez, who will present, “Cultural Landscapes of the Upper Rio Grande,” on Friday, Sept. 12 at 5:15 p.m. in the Pearl Hall auditorium. Valdez’s career started as an adobe and solar design advocate. He restored San Acacio, the oldest church in Colorado, designed and built San Luis, an adobe chapel with domes, and started the county planning departments in Costilla and Conejo counties of Southern Colorado. He is a Loeb Fellow at Harvard, and, in addition to his work as senior Santa Fe county planner, he is a longtime adjunct professor and instructor in the UNM School of Architecture and Planning’s Historic Preservation and Regionalism program. Valdez will talk about the upper Rio Grande watershed, which extends from southern Colorado through New Mexico; and the cultural landscape – represented by ecological systems, settlement patterns and vernacular architecture altered over time by technological intervention and climate change. “Expanding population and growth is exerting increased demands on land tenure and water resources. Key to the preservation of the cultural landscape is sustainable land use planning and growth management,” said Chris Wilson, director, Historic Preservation and Regionalism program. This presentation explores a portion of the landscape beginning at the headwaters in central Colorado traversing south toward La Bajada, the descent between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Colorado’s first settlements in the San Luis Valley, which recently regained access to common lands on the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant, are currently developing and implementing a sustainable land use rights management plan. Santa Fe County’s growth management planning further south focuses on county-wide sprawl, the potential effects of oil and gas development, and the preservation of the historic and cultural resources, such as the historic alignment of Route 66 down La Bajada Hill. Valdez’s presentation is the annual Pearl Fellow Lecture, and is the first in the fall lecture series presented by the School of Architecture and Planning. For more information, call 277-5885. ### |
|
| The University of New Mexico is the state's largest university, serving more than 32,000 students. UNM is home to the state's only schools of law, medicine, pharmacy and architecture and operates New Mexico's only academic health center. UNM is noted for comprehensive undergraduate programs and research that benefits the state and the nation. | |
www.unm.edu |
|