Noted architect and Harvard professor George Baird will be at Cornell University in April to discuss what constitutes "public" space in postindustrial America and how such space might be made vibrant. This year's Preston H. Thomas Memorial Lectures -- a series of four talks -- will take place in David L. Call Alumni Auditorium in Kennedy Hall April 5--16 at 5:30 p.m.

The dates and topics of the lectures are:

• Monday, April 5: "Hannah Arendt and Jurgen Habermas: Two Seminal Concepts of 'the Public' and Their Revisionist Interpretations."
• Thursday, April 8: "Combining Benjaminian 'Distraction' and Arendtian 'Action': A Proposed Hybrid Phenomenology of 'the Public' as Revealed through the Medium of Street Photography."
• Monday, April 12: "Exploring Architectural Conditions of Publicness: Visibility; Proximity; Continuity."
• Friday, April 16: "Some Hitherto Undisclosed Imperatives of Publicness in Contemporary Architecture."

The series is funded through a gift to Cornell's College of Architecture, Art and Planning from Ruth and Leonard B. Thomas of Auburn, N.Y., in memory of their son, Preston.

Baird is director of the master of architecture programs I and II in Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, as well as a partner in the Toronto-based architectural firm of Baird, Sampson, Neuert Inc.

In his talks, Baird will argue for the possibility of an architecture that allows for vibrant public spaces and will challenge pessimistic theories of some architectural theorists on the post-industrial city. In demonstrating his model, Baird will refer to the philosophical writings

of Walter Benjamin and Hannah Arendt as well as street photographs by such notable photographers as Henri Cartier Bresson, John Szarkowski, Walker Evans and Berenice Abbott. In addition he will use a wide range of historical and contemporary examples, including works by such contemporary architects as Dennis Adams, Diller and Scofidio, Toyo Ito and others. The lectures are derived from theory seminars and design studios offered by Baird in recent years in which he and his students explored the possibilities of public life in the postindustrial city.