South Bay Chancellor’s Society Cabinet Salon

Join the South Bay UCLA Chancellor’s Society Cabinet Community and fellow UCLA alumni, parents, and friends for an exclusive reception and presentation featuring special guest:

Monica L. Smith
Professor, Department of Anthropology &
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Navin and Pratima Doshi Chair in Indian Studies

Build Tall or Add Sprawl? An Age-Old Urban Dilemma
In Los Angeles, we’re confronted with sprawl, traffic, and miles of roadways that connect our city. Yet an archaeological perspective on urbanism shows that even in the first cities 6,000 years ago there were the beginnings of a tug-of-war between vertical and horizontal visions of urbanism. Ancient cities almost all have some forms of monumental architecture that concentrates people and events in built-up centers, and they almost all have some forms of sprawl and spread that are equivalent to our modern suburbs. What can we learn from the configuration of ancient and modern cities that can help us work towards better urban centers in the future?

RSVP is by invitation only.