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Former KCDC student Christina Henning wrote an article for Gould Evans' blog (where she is currently an associate) about the KCDC's collaboration with 50/50. KCDC Director Vladimir Krstic would like to extend his congratulations to everyone involved in the project:

“Please take a note of this thoughtful article written by Christina Hennings, a KCDC alumna. We are both very happy for the success of the 50/50 gallery project by Hannah Lodwick and Cambria Potter which took tremendous amount of perseverance and hard work, and proud of our graduates, particularly Christina Hennings and Mary Rogers whose indispensable assistance on this project demonstrated in the best light the spirit of our program committed to community service, collaboration and making difference in improving urban realm. Our congratulations to all for their outstanding work and success. ”

— Vladimir Krstic

Images above by Christina Henning for Gould Evans

The KCDC is back for another year with 11 students from 3 disciplines, 2 awesome projects, and 1 new professor. This year, we'll be working on developing a recycling system for the downtown Kansas City area as well as a project with Art in the Loop.

We kicked off the new year with a class meeting to discuss this year's projects. The first project we'll be working on is a vision study for a recycling system in downtown Kansas City. Unlike residential areas of Kansas City, currently there is no municipal system for recycling in multi-family homes and commercial buildings in the downtown core. We’ll be working to figure out what the needs for recycling are in downtown Kansas City and what we can do to make it more accessible for the people that live, work, and visit the downtown area everyday.

The second project we’ll be working on is a vision plan for Art in the Loop sites in Downtown KC. Art in the Loop is an organization within the Downtown Council that supports artwork in the Central Business District as a part of its urban fabric and identity. We will be creating a system for placing art in downtown KC and studying arts integration into the urban environment.

We'd also like to take this opportunity to introduce the KCDC's newest professor, Dr. Jason Brody. Professor Brody is a planning and urban design professor from K-State. He’ll be teaching the Urban Design seminar at the KCDC as well as helping students on KCDC projects. Jason welcomed in the new academic year by throwing us a rooftop social in downtown KC.

As we move forward into our work, we've spent the first three weeks of the semester conducting research and preparing for our first presentation with the downtown recycling study advisory committee. Made up of area professionals working in the field of recycling and waste management, the advisory committee will help steer us in the right direction and address any questions we have throughout the project.

In the short time we've been conducting research, we've come to learn that the systems behind what we absentmindedly throw away everyday are far more complex than most of us realized. We are eager to sort through all this information and, ultimately, come up with an elegant solution for effectively recycling in downtown KC.

Stay tuned!

The 2015-16 year has officially commenced and the KCDC studio is in full swing! Want to meet the students who will be behind the awesome KCDC projects lined up this year? Check out our Team page for more info on who they are and why they decided to come study at the KCDC.