By Jocelyn Bogen and Elena Temple
May 16, 2011

Mayors, architects and 300 designers came together in Chicago April 27-29 for the first ever and largest ever National Mayors’ Summit on City Design. Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Mayors Institute of City Design (MICD) - a joint program the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM), and the American Architectural Foundation (AAF) - summit participants examined the power of arts and design to make cities more efficient while also honoring the design legacy of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who will leave the office May 16.

For 25 years, MICD has been the only organization that provides mayors an opportunity to learn how smart design can help to solve problems in communities to create more efficient cities. Smart design is a language of problem solving and through MICD; mayors learn to use smart design to creatively reduce costs through innovation in areas such as public transit, downtown development infrastructure and sustainability.

"While cities are forced to cut budgets in this crippled economy, many mayors see "smart design" as a way to save money and potentially generate revenue," said Conference of Mayors President Burnsville (MN) Mayor Elizabeth B. Kautz. "City Design and the Arts are also job generators for communities."

During the two-day summit, mayors and design professionals discussed the successes and lessons from MICD, as well as basic topics vital to the future of American cities. The goal of the convening was to develop shared recommendations for utilizing strategic planning and smart design to achieve remarkable results. An anniversary video highlighted the accomplishments of MICD, reminding the audience that, as Charleston (SC) Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. said, "A great city, large or small, is defined by the quality of its public realm."

A content-packed keynote was delivered by Thom Mayne, design director of Morphosis Architects and a UCLA distinguished professor. With his research team, including graduate students from UCLA Architecture and Urban Design, Mayne has been studying the phenomenon of cities, developing criteria by which to assess their assets, liabilities, and opportunities and using those criteria and the arts and design to map solutions to urban problems.

The Summit featured three concurrent work sessions in which participants discussed one of three topics: Design and Transportation, Design and Development, and Design and 21st-Century Challenges. Working with facilitator-identified key challenges relevant to their topic, participants devised recommendations to overcome those challenges. The next morning the facilitators of each forum reported back to a panel of federal officials, including U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Shaun Donovan; NEA Chairman Landesman; Roy Kienitz, undersecretary for policy, U.S. Department of Transportation; Derek Douglas, special assistant to the president, White House Domestic Policy Council; and Salim Geevarghese, HUD senior advisor.

Donovan opened the federal panel discussion with remarks. "Cities, towns, and regions that embrace sustainable communities will have a built-in competitive edge in attracting jobs and private investment and be able to solve three or four problems with a single investment," said Donovan. "As your partner, my job is clear: to help you turn possibility into reality—so that every mayor can design the stronger, more resilient, more dynamic future for your cities that America needs to compete in the 21st century and win the future."

In the midst of the discussion on the federal government's role in city development mayors voiced their frustration at the lack of funding and support by the Administration and Congress for needed projects in their cities. "Mayors could never get away with the kind of nonsense that goes on in Washington," said USCM Second Vice President Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter. "In our world, you either picked up the trash or you didn’t. You either moved an abandoned car or you didn’t. You either filled a pothole or you didn’t. That’s what we do every day. And we know how to get this stuff done," Nutter concluded.

Some key recommendations from the mayors and summit participants included:

• Remove burdensome regulations that hinder transportation projects

• Fund existing transportation systems, not just new ones

• Expand national metropolitan policy

• Establish a national office of design excellence

• Consider a federal "creativity stimulus" that seeds entrepreneurship in design and city building

• Invent new procurement processes that promote creative innovation.

The Summit was moderated by NEA Design Director Jason Schupbach and was sponsored financially by the National Endowment for the Arts and Target Corporation.

The highlight of the summit was on its final day, April 29, where design professionals and scholars honored Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley as the recipient of the Joseph P. Riley Award for Leadership in Urban Design. As Chicago’s longest serving mayor, Daley is described by Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran as a "Mayor’s Mayor."

Prior to Daley receiving the award, several mayors spoke of his contributions to the arts and design. Riley, for whom the award is named, said, "Visionary leaders make great cities. Mayor Daley realizes that, and he took the role of chief urban designer for the city of Chicago to a new level in our country, if not the world."

Kautz said, "Mayor Daley is visionary in that he has truly looked at design in his city as an economic development tool."

"Mayor Daley is not just a successful mayor he’s a transformative change agent. He’s someone who has left an indeliable mark on the city of Chicago," said Vice President Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa.

As a past president of the Conference of Mayors, Daley has worked closely with Cochran over the years. "In the future when mayors, architects and people look back on cities that got it right when it comes to city design, Mayor Daley and his achievements will stand out as the -gold standard- for mayors and others interested in urban design in the years ahead," Cochran said upon delivering the award.

Accepting the award just weeks before his 22-year tenure as mayor ends, Daley said, "I deeply appreciate this award. Realizing the value of the arts and [design] makes us better public servants. I thank mayors for their willingness to think outside the box and listen to designers and urban planners. [We know] artists will define what we do in the next decade."

Landesman said, "For 25 years, the National Endowment for the Arts has been investing in complete communities and sustainable design through the Mayors’ Institute on City Design. Mayors, designers, and artists have a shared responsibility for creating vibrant, livable communities throughout our country, and no one knows that better than Mayor Daley, who has made Chicago a global model for a vibrant, creative, sustainable city."

To recap the summit and watch the full-length videos online, visit the website micd.org.