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Design Leadership Forum
The KCDC hosts topical seminars and workshops that introduce a select audience of civic leaders, public officials, the media, and community representatives to leading thinkers and ideas about planning and design.
Our goal is to improve the quality of local decision making by providing critical and practical insights on how better urban and architectural design can resolve specific planning and development challenges. In order to foster constructive dialogue and create an environment conducive to collaborative problem solving, participation in each event is restricted to an invited audience.
Upcoming Forums
No forums are scheduled at this time.
Past Forums
- Civic Alliances for the Public Realm
Robert Yaro led a collaborative discussion among civic organizations with shared interests in better planning and design throughout the Kansas City region.
- Transforming Public Parks, April 2006
The leadership and staff of the Kansas City, Mo. Parks Department engaged in a productive dialogue with Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, president of the Foundation for Landscape Studies and founder of the Central Park Conservancy.
- Closing the Loop, March 2006
Mark Robbins critiqued design concepts for aesthetic enhancements to the South Loop bridges and offered recommendations on how to promote design excellence while mending this gap in Kansas City's urban fabric.
- The City as a Work of Art, February 2006
Kathleen Coakley Barrie offered insights from her experiences in Cleveland on the role of civic actors in developing an aesthetic vision for city design.
- Great Streets, April 2005
Acclaimed city planner and urban designer Allan B. Jacobs explored the role of streets in shaping the character and identity of great cities.
- A Legacy of Swiss Design, March 2005
Princeton University Engineering Prof. David Billington led a stakeholder discussion of how aesthetics can inform the design and engineering of landmark bridges.
- Urbanism and Economic Development, February 2005
Yale Univ. Professor Douglas W. Rae examined economic development strategies that can contribute to the vitality of Kansas City's urban core.
- Building a Great Kansas City Through Place Making,
August 2004
Presentation by Fred Kent, President, Project for Public Spaces.
- Urban Ecology and the Landscape of Community,
November 2002
MIT landscape architect and urban ecologist Anne Whiston Spirn explored the role of urban ecology and environmental education in shaping the history and daily life of inner-city communities.
- Affordable Housing and Community Design, April 2002
Architect Michael Pyatok, an acclaimed designer of affordable and sustainable housing, gave the keynote address for a program attended by directors of Kansas City's community development corporations.