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Lissa Thompson
Ritchie Smith Associates, Memphis, Tenn.
Garvan Chair Visiting Professor

5: 30 p.m., April 16
Shollmier Hall

Cut off from Europe by the Pyrenees, with Africa at its southern doorstep, and shaped by cultures that range from the ancient Phoenicians to the Bourbon French, Spain’s designed landscape has evolved very differently than the rest of Europe. Lissa Thompson, who is the 2008 Garvan Chair Visiting Professor in the department of landscape architecture, made her first visit to Spain more than thirty years ago, and has since crisscrossed the country, photographing many of its natural and designed landscapes. She will present an informal survey of Spanish landscapes at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 16 in Shollmier Hall.
 
 “Spain tends to get slighted, with the focus placed on Italy, and there’s so much to learn there,” she said. Quiet courtyard gardens that reflect Arab influence, Roman plazas and Christian cloisters are among the riches that Thompson will discuss in her lecture. She also will discuss contemporary work such as Santiago Calatrava's new City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, Spain.

 “Design strategies vary due to the diversity of the native landscape, and of course, Spain was the gateway to the world. It’s got its own distinct personality,” Thompson said.

Lissa Thompson is a principal and lead designer with Ritchie Smith Associates, a landscape architecture and planning firm based in Memphis, Tenn. Her work in Arkansas includes Mt. Magazine State Park Visitor Center, picnic and campground enhancements in Logan County; master plans for the RiverMarket District and Fourche Creek Park, both in Little Rock; and a master plan for Garvan Woodland Gardens, the School of Architecture’s botanical garden in Hot Springs, Ark. She won a National Award of Merit from the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1990 and several honor and merit awards from the Tennessee chapter of the ASLA. Her prior work was in Boston, as project assistant with the Trust for Public Land, assistant planner with Philip B. Herr & Associates, assistant in the design office of Diane McGuire and staff designer in the practice of Michael Van Valkenburgh.
 
 Thompson earned a BA degree in fine art and Spanish (double major) from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and a master’s degree in landscape architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Prior to graduate school, while working as a graphic designer in Little Rock, Ark., Thompson helped to secure wilderness designation from the U. S. Congress for areas in the Ozark and Ouachita National Forests. This spring, Thompson is teaching contemporary landscape architecture history and leading a landscape architecture seminar on open urban spaces.