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Office of News and Information
Johns Hopkins University
901 South Bond Street, Suite 540
Baltimore, Maryland 21231
Phone: 443-287-9960 | Fax: 443-287-9920

April 1, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Judith Evans Smith
(410) 516-6393
Heather Egan Stalfort, 410-516-0341


"Rebuilding America's Cities" Lecture at Johns Hopkins

The third annual Rebuilding America's Cities Lecture presented by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies and Evergreen Museum & Library will be held at 6:30 p.m., on Thursday, May 1, in the Evergreen Carriage House, Evergreen Museum & Library, 4545 N. Charles St. in Baltimore. Ronald Ratner, executive vice president and director of Forest City Enterprises, and president and CEO of Forest City Residential Group, will give a talk titled, "American Cities: Does Size Matter?"

Ratner, an executive vice president of one of the largest publicly traded real estate companies in the United States, will discuss the pitfalls of equating city size and growth with success, the central role that cities play in metropolitan areas, and smart strategies for shrinking cities.

The lecture is free and open to the public, but seating is limited and an RSVP is encouraged. To respond, or for more information, the public may e-mail urbanlecture@jhu.edu or visit http://www.museums.jhu.edu.

Forest City Enterprises has been characterized as the nation's foremost visionary on urban development. "It's a $10 billion company that has done more 'rebuilding' throughout the U.S. than any other entity," said Sandra Newman, director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies. "At present, for example, they are directing the rebuilding of the Anacostia waterfront in Washington, D.C., the downtown Brooklyn Atlantic Avenue redevelopment and, closer to home, the East Baltimore redevelopment."

Ratner's experience with Forest City began in 1975 and has included direct development, construction, financing and management responsibilities, beginning with individual projects and leading to executive supervision of multiple large-scale developments on a national level. He received his bachelor's degree from Brandeis University and completed the master's program in architecture at UCLA. A member of the Urban Land Institute and a director of the National Multi Housing Council, Ratner also has served as a member of FNMA's National Housing Impact Advisory Council.

The Rebuilding America's Cities Lectures are made possible through the generous support of the Johns Hopkins University Provost's Office, the Evergreen House Foundation and media partners WTMD 89.7 FM and WYPR 88.1 FM. Previous lectures were presented in May 2007 by New Orleans recovery czar Edward J. Blakely and in April 2006 by architecture critic Paul Goldberger.

"American Cities: Does Size Matter?" marks Evergreen Museum & Library's seventh Garrett Lecture on Urban Issues, which commemorates the interest of the Garrett family, the former owners of Evergreen, in recreation, civic improvement and urban planning.