RURAL
ADAPT
ATIONS
SYMPOSIUM
Friday, April 10, 2026
Schwartz Center, Film Form Lecture Hall
Cornell University, 430 College Ave, Ithaca, NY 14850
Rural landscapes—from farmlands to forests—are already confronting intensifying pressures driven by climate change. Rising temperatures, severe drought, flash flooding, and increasingly severe wildfires are reshaping ecological systems and rural livelihoods. New energy landscapes, from solar ’farms’ to rare earth mining, disproportionately impact rural communities, creating increased land use conflicts, habitat fragmentation and environmental impacts. However, rural lands also offer great opportunities to mitigate impacts, from regenerative practices in farming, to afforestation of marginal and mine lands, to the sequestration of carbon in soils. Together, these converging pressures and opportunities are driving rapid transformations of rural environments, and require pro-active discussions about the role of design to help improve the ecological, social, and economic resilience for rural lands. Design is the space where land-based sciences converge to create grounded, real-world interventions. Connecting fragmented habitats, the siting of new energy infrastructures, and the development of nature-based infrastructures are spatial questions requiring design responses that build from multiple disciplines to create solutions that build real-world impact. Sensitive rural design, built from trans-disciplinary knowledge, offers the potential to build more resilient rural futures through emerging research, pilot projects, and radical collaborations.
The Rural Adaptations Symposium will connect global experts with regional practitioners and researchers in the sphere of rural design to discuss some of the most urgent challenges to rural communities, and highlight innovative projects that support more resilient futures. As the first in a series hosted by Cornell’s Department of Landscape Architecture, the symposium launches a broader initiative to foster cross-sector collaboration around climate-responsive design. Organized around four thematic tracks—Field, Forest, Energy + Extraction, and Lowlands—the program highlights professional practice, academic research, nonprofit initiatives, and Indigenous-led projects. The Rural Adaptations symposium aims not only to bridge research and practice, but also to build enduring connections across disciplines and organizations—laying the groundwork for the radical collaborations necessary to shape more resilient rural futures.
The Rural Adaptations Symposium is organized by Assistant Professor Anne Weber at Cornell University. This program is made possible through Cornell’s Department of Landscape Architecture.
LA-CES Credits available through ASLA-Upstate NY. Please contact Kait Dacieck kmd294@cornell.edu for more information.
9:00 - 9:15
INTRODUCTION
Maria Goula, Professor and Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture, Cornell University
Lindsey Burnette, Assistant Professor, Colorado State University, Co-Director, Rural Future Collaborative
Anne Weber, Assistant Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, Cornell University
9:15 - 11:00
FIELD
Moderator:
Clay Gruber, Co-Director, Rural Futures Collaborative
Presenters:
Sierra Bainbridge, Senior Principal and Managing Director, Food Systems Design Lab, MASS Design
Andrew Berger, Director of Agriculture and Climate Adaptation Programs at Piikani Lodge Health Institute
Forbes Lipschitz, Associate Professor, Ohio State University
Mark Schrader, Assistant Director, Agriculture Experiment Stations at Cornell University
11:00 - 12:45
FOREST
Moderator:
Jamie Vannuchi, Associate Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, Cornell University
Presenters:
Emily Schlickman, Assistant Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of California Davis
Lifen Jiang, Senior Research Associate, Luo Lab, School of Integrative Plant Sciences, Cornell University
Emily Knox, Associate Professor and Graduate Landscape Architecture Chair, Auburn University
Neil Patterson Jr., Executive Director, Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
12:30 - 1:30
BREAK
1:30 - 3:15
ENERGY + EXTRACTION
Moderator:
Maria Goula, Professor and Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture, Cornell University
Presenters:
Nicholas Pevzner, Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at UPenn’s Weitzman School of Design; Faculty Fellow at UPenn's Kleinman Center for Energy Policy
Niko Kochendoerfer, Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell Solar Sheep Program, Agrivoltaic Solutions, AGSA
Steve Grodsky, Assistant Professor, Natural Resources and the Environment, Cornell University
Michael Charles, Cornell Provost’s New Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor, Biological and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University
3:15 - 5:00
LOWLANDS
Moderator:
Anna Darling, Lecturer, Department of Landscape Architecture, Cornell University
Presenters:
Phoebe Lickwar, Principal of FORGE Landscape Architecture; Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin
Michael Luegering, Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture, Co-Director of the Natural Infrastructure Lab, University of Virginia
Andrew Fox, Professor and University Faculty Scholar; Director and Co-Founder, NC State Coastal Dynamics Design Lab, NC State
Liz Camuti, Assistant Professor, Tulane School of Architecture and Built Environment, NASEM Gulf Coast Climate Futures Project
5:00 - 5:20
REFLECTIONS
Roxi Thoren, Department Head and Professor of Landscape Architecture, Stuckeman Chair of Integrative Design, Penn State