The symposium was a part of the Preston H. Thomas Memorial Lecture series at the Department of Architecture at Cornell University. It marked the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Earth Art exhibition held in what was then the Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art in Ithaca.

As a nod to the 1969 event, this year's symposium sought to look at the "significance for art, architecture, and design in the contemporary situation defined by planetary issues of environmental crises." The event featured works by land and environmental artists and explored the motivations of their work and its context in history.

Four lectures were given at the symposium, the speakers included:

• Peg Rawes, professor of architecture and philosophy, The Bartlett School of Architecture University College London
• James Nisbet, associate professor of art history and visual studies, University of California–Irvine
• Rania Ghosn of Design Earth and associate professor of architecture and urbanism at MIT
• Jorge Otero-Pailos (B.Arch. '94, M.Arch. '95) of Otero-Pailos Studio and professor and director of historic preservation at Columbia University