Renowned architect and authority on suburbia Ellen Dunham-Jones was in Eugene Feb. 3 for the University of Oregon’s City Design Lecture Series. Dunham-Jones gave her presentation, “Retrofitting Suburbia,” at the Baker Downtown Center, 975 High St.

Dunham-Jones teaches architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology and serves on the board of the Congress for the New Urbanism. She has spoken for the TED talks series. Her writing and presentations show that the design of the places we live affects our energy consumption and overall ecological footprint. Well-designed physical spaces can improve our health and the health of our communities while providing living options for people of all ages.

Her presentation drew from her 2008 book, "Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs." The book documents case studies of suburban transformation, with dead malls, office parks and commercial strips re-emerging as lively and sustainable places.

The lecture drew 105 people, one of the largest turnouts for a lecture in the City Design series.

The City Design Lecture Series, co-sponsored by OTREC, aims to inform professionals, students and the public about the need to consider transportation and land use together to create safe and livable cities with less congestion, more mobility choices and more housing variety.

Dunham-Jones’ presentation reprises the series, which featured five speakers in 2006. Podcasts of those earlier presentations are available here.