CHICAGO -- Prominent national architects and city planners will lay out their visions of public places and private spaces in the 21st century at a conference, "Public Places, Private Spaces and People's Lives," in Chicago on Oct. 4-5 sponsored by the President's Council of Cornell Women, a Cornell University alumnae group.

One of the highlights of the meeting will be a presentation by New York architect Jill Lerner, co-chair of the Civic Alliance Memorials Committee and the New York Visions Memorial Committee, an open process to develop a plan for the memorials at the World Trade Center site in New York. She will speak Friday afternoon on the debate over rebuilding the trade center or building a memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The conference also will address many other issues -- from urban development and public policy to America's new communities.

The conference will be held at Bank One Headquarters, corner of Clark and Madison, on Friday and the Allerton Crowne Plaza Hotel, 701 N. Michigan Ave., on Saturday. A number of women prominent in Chicago business and public service who are members of the President's Council of Cornell Women, or PCCW, will be attending the meeting. [The panels are open for media coverage.]

Porus Olpadwala, dean of the Cornell College of Architecture, Art and Planning, will open the session on "Urban Development and Public Policy" at 2:45 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 4. Moderator will be Gladys Margarita Diaz-Jourdain, a founding principal of Urbanzia Investments Inc., of Coral Gables, Fla. Panelists will be Ann-Margaret Esnard, assistant professor of city and regional planning at Cornell; Jill Lerner, principal and architect at Kohn, Pedersen, Fox Associates of New York; Margo Hebald, founding principal of Margo Hebald-Heymann Architect of Pacific Palisades, Calif.; and Sandra McCullough, project director of Roy F. Weston Inc., of Chicago.

"Living in America's New Communities" is the focus of a session beginning at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 5. Moderator is Diane Cho, founding principal of Cho Benn Holback & Associates of Baltimore; Faye Harwell, director and co-founder of Rhodeside & Harwell, Landscape Architects, of Alexandria, Va.; Darlene Fridstein, design partner at Lovell Fridstein Ltd. of Chicago; and Joan Pease, president of Partners in Planning of Alexandria, Va.

Also speaking at the conference will be Alan Chimacoff, director of design for The Hillier Group of Ithaca, N.Y., which designed a dynamic living-learning community for freshman students at Cornell.

The President's Council of Cornell Women is an alumnae group that serves as an advisory council to Cornell's president. The group was established in 1990 with the mission of advancing the involvement and leadership of women students, faculty, staff and alumnae. Among PCCW's contributions to Cornell women are a grant program that has presented more than $303,000 to 128 women at Cornell in support of their research and financial support for women athletes at the university.