More keynotes to be announced!
Jennifer Bousselot, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Colorado State University
Roofscapes Reimagined: Food, Flowers, and Power for Resilient Cities
Green roofs do far more than beautify our urban landscapes. They are quiet powerhouses shaping the ecological, agricultural, and energetic future of our cities. Drawing on more than 20 years of research in green roofs, local foods, native plant systems, pollinator ecology, and rooftop agrivoltaics, this keynote will reveal how these resilient systems enhance urban life in ways we are only beginning to fully understand. We will explore how food crops, native plants, and rooftop solar can contribute to urban food resiliency, biodiversity, and renewable energy generation. Discover how native flora thrives on green roofs in semi-arid climates, support pollinator populations through accelerated phenology and enhance nectar resources and create new ecological niches when paired with solar panel arrays. Learn how rooftop agrivoltaics and emerging 'ecovoltaic' systems are transforming unused urban spaces into multifunctional landscapes that grow food, generate clean energy, and nurture pollinators, all within the same footprint.
Anthony Fieldman, AIA, LEED® AP
Partner, Architect, DIALOG
Centennial Upheaval: The Coming Age of Abundance
We live in a moment of historic upheaval comprised of unprecedented inequality and illness, destabilized institutions and climate, and obsolete models of education and work. Drawing on his book Everything Is Broken, Fieldman traces our simultaneous systems failures to a single source: entities built for a world of scarcity, still running at full speed in a world increasingly capable of abundance. The path to that abundance, he argues, is already being forged, across every system, by individuals, institutions, and nations that have chosen long-term collective thriving over short- term extraction.
Rachel Wilkins, RLA
Senior Landscape Architect, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)
The BIG U: Reimagining the Coast of Lower Manhattan
Rachel Wilkins, RLA is a Senior Landscape Architect at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) in New York City, where she leads landscape architecture and urban design on the Battery Park City Resiliency Project, a multi-phase coastal infrastructure initiative reshaping the edge of lower Manhattan. At BIG, landscape is never a finishing layer. It is embedded in the project from the earliest design moves, functioning as both urban infrastructure and public space. This philosophy treats every project as an opportunity to give something back to the city, designing for building users and the broader public realm in equal measure.
Bill Browning, Hon AIA, LEED AP
Founding Partner, Managing Partner, Terrapin Bright Green
Rewilding Our Buildings
Green roofs can be beautiful and biophilic tools for addressing stormwater issues. However, this may be too limited a view of these technologies. This keynote will explore looking at the planting of our buildings as tools for engagement and for increasing native biodiversity. I'll explore some worldclass examples that have shifted people's perception and engagement. Let's look at projects that intentionally increase biodiversity, focusing on locally specific species - in effect Re-Wilding our Buildings.