Atlas Lab’s Kimberly Garza and Erik Prince named fall 2026 Lifchez Professors
The Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning announces the appointment of Kimberly Garza (BA Landscape Architecture 2006) and Erik Prince, principals of mission-driven landscape architecture, urban design, and public art studio Atlas Lab, as the fall 2026 Lifchez Professors of Practice in Social Justice.
A tribute to the work and teaching of Professor Emeritus Raymond Lifchez (1932–2023), the Lifchez Professor of Practice in Social Justice honors the importance of design education around accessibility and disability justice. Lifchez, who earned his Master of City Planning degree from CED, taught in the college for over five decades. During his graduate studies, he developed a course centered around the concept of accessibility in architectural design.
Atlas Lab fosters accessible, positive, and progressive community initiatives
At Atlas Lab, Kimberly Garza spearheads initiatives that foster accessible, positive, and progressive impacts on communities. Her portfolio spans private and public developments nationwide and her work has been internationally recognized, published, and exhibited. She was named the 2023–2024 Landscape Architecture Foundation Fellow for Innovation and Leadership, a 40 Under 40 Urban Innovator by NextCity.org, and a 40 Under 40 Honoree by the Sacramento Business Journal. Garza earned her bachelor of arts in landscape architecture from UC Berkeley and her MLA from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Erik Prince is the guiding force behind Atlas Lab’s advocacy for culturally and ecologically responsive design. His work translates regional narratives into layered, sensory design, revealing how movement, memory, and cultural history inform how people inhabit and perceive place. At Atlas Lab, he has guided major projects that reimagine streets and public spaces as social, restorative, and climate-responsive landscapes, including Sacramento’s River District Strategic Plan, the Sacramento Waterfront and Capitol Mall, and the Mill Street Pedestrian Plaza in Grass Valley, California. He received his bachelor of science in landscape architecture from Colorado State University and his MLA from Harvard GSD, where he graduated with distinction and received the Jacob Weidenmann Prize, the Department of Landscape Architecture’s highest award for design.
Recipients of the Lifchez professorship are asked to create courses involving student engagement with local communities. This fall, Garza and Prince will teach a graduate-level landscape architecture course entitled Community Engagement and Public Participation in Planning Processes.
“We are excited to welcome Kim and Erik to CED,” said Dorothée Imbert, chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning. “Working with Atlas Lab will afford our students an unparalleled opportunity to uncover the systems of everyday landscapes. Through walking, documenting, interviewing, and projecting, they will engage with a deep reading of space and reflect on climate justice and community practices.”
The Lifchez endowed professorship rotates every two years among the departments in the college. Previous recipients are Anya Domlesky, Nader Afzalan, Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah, Alan Ricks, Jeffrey Mansfield, and Chris Downey.