LEWISTON — David Spillane, director of planning and urban design at Goody Clancy, will be the featured speaker at the Great Falls Forum lecture series Thursday.

It begins at noon May 16 in Callahan Hall at the Lewiston Public Library, 200 Lisbon St.

Spillane will present a talk titled, “How Cities are Redefining Their Waterfronts and Recapturing Their Vitality.”

Spillane moved from his native Ireland to Boston to attend the Harvard Graduate School of Design. For the past 20 years, his professional life has focused on assisting communities across the country plan for their futures, with a particular interest in downtowns and urban waterfronts.

His work has been recognized through numerous awards from the American Planning Association, American Institute of Architects, Congress for the New Urbanism and the Waterfront Center.

His projects include planning for much of the Boston waterfront as well as the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. In 2011-2012, he was hired by the city of Lewiston to work on its master plan for Riverfront Island, the historic mill district area surrounded by the Androscoggin River and the city’s canal system.

Changes to urban waterfronts have been major drivers of community revitalization and renewal over the past 30 years. Cities large and small in the United States and across the globe have seen waterfront industry decline as the foundation of local economies.

Waterways that were once highly polluted are coming back to life as fisheries, places to swim and centers for community recreation. Spillane will provide an overview of some of these innovative waterfront redesigns and will highlight success stories that might offer lessons or inspiration for Lewiston and other Maine communities seeking to reinvent their own waterfronts.

Admission is free to all Forum events, and no reservations are required. The presentation will be from noon to 1 p.m.

Attendees are invited to bring brown-bag lunches or to take advantage of the Forum’s partnership with Guthries cafe and request one of the eatery’s custom-made gourmet sandwiches or salads to be delivered to the library in advance of the talk. Orders may be placed by calling Guthries at 376-3344.

The menu is available at www.guthriesplace.com. Coffee, tea and bottled water will be available on-site at the library.

The Great Falls Forum is co-sponsored by Bates College, Lewiston Public Library and the Sun Journal.

More information on the Great Falls Forum series is available by contacting the Lewiston Public Library at 513-3135 or www.LPLonline.org.