The real lesson of New York City's celebrated High Line is not that every city needs an elevated linear park, but that the features of the cities that we've long disused, ignored and written off as blight are actually valuable components of the unnatural natural environment. Long regarded as liabilities, abused rivers like Newark's Passaic, the Los Angeles River and Houston's Buffalo Bayou are being transformed into assets.

Even the most obstructive, no-man's-land-generating form of urban infrastructure — the elevated expressway — can, with skill and imagination, be incorporated into metropolitan form of nature. While Frederick Law Olmsted's 19th-century landscapes afforded an escape from the urban life, the 21st-century approach to man–made nature offers a deeper immersion into our changing cities.

The lecture is led by Karrie Jacobs, a professional observer of the man-made landscape. For 10 years she wrote the "America" column for Metropolis magazine about how ideas and strategies in architecture and design play out in the real world. She's currently a faculty member at DCrit, the School of Visual Arts' graduate program in design criticism; a contributing editor at Travel + Leisure; and a frequent contributor to Architect.

A reception to meet the speaker follows the program. This annual lecture kicks off Design Fair 2014 at the Lawndale Art Center.