By Aaron Koch, Mayors Institute on City Design
November 18, 2002

The Mayors' Institute on City Design brought together mayors and design professionals from across the country October 23-25 in La Jolla (CA) to discuss the importance of design in communities. The Mayors' Institute is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, established in 1986 and carried out in partnership with the US Conference of Mayors and the American Architectural Foundation. This unique program has brought together over 500 mayors with a diverse group of design and development professionals since its inception. The goal of the Mayors' Institute is for participants to return to their cities with greater insights on how, as mayor, they can implement solutions that will improve the quality of life in their cities.

The event opened on Wednesday evening, October 23, with a dinner at the prestigious Salk Institute and a keynote address by former Cincinnati Mayor Roxanne Qualls. Qualls demonstrated that her experience at the Mayors' Institute in 1996 supported her efforts to redevelop Cincinnati's waterfront. At that time, Cincinnati's waterfront was disconnected from downtown by a busy freeway and characterized by a patchwork of parking lots and obsolete stadiums. During her four-year tenure, she oversaw more than $1.3 billion in public investment that transformed the waterfront with two new sports stadiums, underground parking, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and a freeway redesign that has reconnected the street grid and made the area accessEach mayor presented a specific case study of an issue facing their city and spent two days discussing effective approaches with a team of design experts in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, structural engineering, financing, and development. While each mayor presented a situation that is unique to their city, the issues discussed are indicative of larger trends in American cities. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is faced with the issue of reconnecting a city divided by freeways and the complexities of creating successful pedestrian connections and elegant civic infrastructure. Hartford (CT) Mayor Eddie Perez is hoping to build a residential base in downtown that will enliven the core of his city. Revitalizing riverfronts by creaThe mayors worked with a talented and experienced team of design professionals to generate ideas, better understand the potential of design, and determine strategies that will guide future decisions concerning the built environment. Participating designers included: Dennis Carmichael, FASLA, Landscape Architect, EDAW, Alexandria, VA; John Eddy, Structural Engineer, Arup, San Francisco; Cindy Holler, Development Consultant, Fannie Mae, Chicago; John Kaliski, AIA, Architect and Urban Designer, Urban Studio, Los Angeles; Peter Park, Director of Planning, city of Milwaukee; Stanley Saitowitz, Architect, Natoma Architects, San Francisco; Bryan Shiles, AIA, Architect, Gordon H. Chong & Partners, San Francisco; Michael Willis, FAIA, Architect, Michael WilA special presentation was made by Billie Tsien, of Tod Williams Billie Tsien & Associates, New York, NY. Billie led a tour of her firm's award winning Neurosciences Institute facility, the event's meeting venue, and gave a presentation concerning the design process of the building. Tsien also described her work as the only architect on the Board of Directors of the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation and discussed her firm's recently completed American Folk Art Museum, the first new museum to be built in New York in more than thirty years and recipient of the Arup World Architecture award for Best Building in the World, 2002.

Each mayor presented a specific case study of an issue facing their city and spent two days discussing effective approaches with a team of design experts in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, structural engineering, financing, and development. While each mayor presented a situation that is unique to their city, the issues discussed are indicative of larger trends in American cities. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is faced with the issue of reconnecting a city divided by freeways and the complexities of creating successful pedestrian connections and elegant civic infrastructure. Hartford (CT) Mayor Eddie Perez is hoping to build a residential base in downtown that will enliven the core of his city. Revitalizing riverfronts by creaThe mayors worked with a talented and experienced team of design professionals to generate ideas, better understand the potential of design, and determine strategies that will guide future decisions concerning the built environment. Participating designers included: Dennis Carmichael, FASLA, Landscape Architect, EDAW, Alexandria, VA; John Eddy, Structural Engineer, Arup, San Francisco; Cindy Holler, Development Consultant, Fannie Mae, Chicago; John Kaliski, AIA, Architect and Urban Designer, Urban Studio, Los Angeles; Peter Park, Director of Planning, city of Milwaukee; Stanley Saitowitz, Architect, Natoma Architects, San Francisco; Bryan Shiles, AIA, Architect, Gordon H. Chong & Partners, San Francisco; Michael Willis, FAIA, Architect, Michael WilA special presentation was made by Billie Tsien, of Tod Williams Billie Tsien & Associates, New York, NY. Billie led a tour of her firm's award winning Neurosciences Institute facility, the event's meeting venue, and gave a presentation concerning the design process of the building. Tsien also described her work as the only architect on the Board of Directors of the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation and discussed her firm's recently completed American Folk Art Museum, the first new museum to be built in New York in more than thirty years and recipient of the Arup World Architecture award for Best Building in the World, 2002.

The mayors worked with a talented and experienced team of design professionals to generate ideas, better understand the potential of design, and determine strategies that will guide future decisions concerning the built environment. Participating designers included: Dennis Carmichael, FASLA, Landscape Architect, EDAW, Alexandria, VA; John Eddy, Structural Engineer, Arup, San Francisco; Cindy Holler, Development Consultant, Fannie Mae, Chicago; John Kaliski, AIA, Architect and Urban Designer, Urban Studio, Los Angeles; Peter Park, Director of Planning, city of Milwaukee; Stanley Saitowitz, Architect, Natoma Architects, San Francisco; Bryan Shiles, AIA, Architect, Gordon H. Chong & Partners, San Francisco; Michael Willis, FAIA, Architect, Michael WilA special presentation was made by Billie Tsien, of Tod Williams Billie Tsien & Associates, New York, NY. Billie led a tour of her firm's award winning Neurosciences Institute facility, the event's meeting venue, and gave a presentation concerning the design process of the building. Tsien also described her work as the only architect on the Board of Directors of the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation and discussed her firm's recently completed American Folk Art Museum, the first new museum to be built in New York in more than thirty years and recipient of the Arup World Architecture award for Best Building in the World, 2002.

A special presentation was made by Billie Tsien, of Tod Williams Billie Tsien & Associates, New York, NY. Billie led a tour of her firm's award winning Neurosciences Institute facility, the event's meeting venue, and gave a presentation concerning the design process of the building. Tsien also described her work as the only architect on the Board of Directors of the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation and discussed her firm's recently completed American Folk Art Museum, the first new museum to be built in New York in more than thirty years and recipient of the Arup World Architecture award for Best Building in the World, 2002.