Last week's gathering with Alan Ward was the first of four public forums by General Growth Properties Inc. to discuss the development of a master plan for Columbia's Town Center.
All the meetings start at 7:30 p.m. at the GGP Building, 10275 Little Patuxent Parkway.
The schedule:
March 19: Evening with Gail Dexter Lord. As president of Lord Cultural Resources, Lord specializes in planning museums and other cultural institutions. Her projects include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Smithsonian's National African American Museum of History and Culture in Washington.
April 2: Evening with Keith Bowers, founder and president of Biohabitats, an ecological restoration design, planning and assessment firm. He has a broad background in restoration ecology, ecological planning and landscape architecture, which he has applied to hundreds of projects in North America.
April 9: Evening with Jaquelin T. Robertson. As founding partner of the architecture and urban design firm Cooper, Robertson & Partners, Robertson has led his firm's design work on many award-winning architectural and planning projects, including Daniel Island, S.C., New Albany, N.Y., Celebration and WaterColor in Florida, and Val d'Europe in France.