02/14/17

AMES, Iowa —Stephanie Ryberg-Webster, a national expert on urban development and historic preservation, will speak about “The Future of the Past in America’s Legacy Cities” in a lecture at Iowa State University.

Her free public presentation will begin at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 23, in Kocimski Auditorium, room 0101 College of Design. Part of the 2016-2017 Contemporary Issues in Planning and Design Lecture Series, the talk is co-sponsored by the College of Design, Department of Community and Regional Planning, Department of Architecture, Department of History, and Community and Regional Planning Club.

Ryberg-Webster is an associate professor of urban studies, director of the graduate program in urban planning and development and coordinator of the historic preservation certificate program at Cleveland State University, Ohio. Her research broadly explores the intersections of historic preservation and urban development, including preservation (and demolition) in legacy cities (older industrial cities that have experienced sustained job and population loss over the past several decades); synergy and tensions between preservation and community development; federal and state historic rehabilitation tax credits; and the preservation of Cleveland’s African American heritage. She also has studied the history of historic preservation in Cleveland during the 1970s as urban disinvestment escalated.

Ryberg-Webster teaches courses in urban planning, historic preservation, urban design and contemporary urban issues. Her work has been published in the Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Planning Literature, Journal of Urban Affairs, Journal of Urban History, Journal of Urban Studies and others.

She holds a Bachelor of Urban Planning from the University of Cincinnati, a Master of Historic Preservation from the University of Maryland and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, with a dissertation analyzing community development corporations’ past and current use of historic preservation as a neighborhood revitalization strategy across four cities (Cleveland, Houston, Providence and Seattle). She is a member of the American Planning Association, Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, Cleveland Restoration Society, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Society for American City and Regional Planning History and Urban Affairs Association.

Contacts:
Ted Grevstad-Nordbrock, Community and Regional Planning, (515) 294-2528, tedgn@iastate.edu
Heather Sauer, Design Communications, (515) 294-9289, hsauer@iastate.edu

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