The Commons - Location site of the 2023 Exhibit Columbus Design Presentations: Public By Design. Image courtesy of Katherine Guimapang.

How do you activate invisible spaces, and what does it mean to design for the public? These were the themes that sparked important conversations at Exhibit Columbus’ 2023 Design Presentations organized by the Landmark Columbus Foundation. Each Exhibit Columbus cycle focuses on a new theme along with a hand-selected team of curatorial partners, community advisors, and participating designers. Selected designers are chosen by the curatorial team and are recognized as J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize winners, University Design Research Fellows, and High School Design Team winners. As media partners, Archinect visited the city of Columbus and listened in as architects, designers, artists, urban planners, and academic researchers pitched their design presentations to guests and the local community of Columbus. 

During our coverage, we focused on seven projects presented by the 2023 University Design Research Fellows. Each year, the Foundation releases an open call to university professors from architecture schools across the nation to participate in a unique opportunity that “respond to, enhance, and/or critique [...] the possibilities for the future of downtown Columbus." Through this process and design programming, the curatorial jury believes "themes connected to larger issues in downtowns will emerge.” 

With the open call announced in July 2022, the Exhibit Columbus team of curatorial partners selected seven projects from 15 designers, architects, researchers, urban planners, and artists from prominent architecture schools in the Midwest. Each project aims to "reimagine" and activate an overlooked or forgotten space throughout the town. 

Now in its 6th year, Exhibit Columbus has grown into a program that not only sheds a light on the historical and architectural significance found in Columbus, Indiana but the power of civic engagement through public design forums. 

Below we explore all seven university design projects and their proposals which hope to answer this year's theme: Public by Design.

Molly Hunker and Greg Corso present Side Effects
Institution: Syracuse University

Project Details: "Side Effects learns from two qualities of Columbus’ special design legacy—the indoor-outdoor continuity deployed by Modernist architectural design, and the high-contrast patterns developed by Alexander Girard. The project consists of two large, brightly-colored and patterned shapes that break down the boundary of interior and exterior to the north and south of The Commons’ main entrance on Washington Street. 2D elements of the pattern create a spatial definition of the new informal public space while maintaining public right-of-way and accessibility. 3D elements add interior and exterior seating to The Commons entrance."

Joseph Altshuler and Zack Morrison present A Carousel for Columbus
Institution: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Project Details: "The Carousel for Columbus is a locomotive love letter in-the-round. Shapely silhouettes sampled from the city’s iconic architecture huddle together to form a curious carousel, a backdrop for public life in the city. Supergraphics, also sampled from the city’s architecture, animate the walls and ground surfaces of the plaza. The graphics sync into and out of optical alignment with the carousel as it spins in place or as visitors circulate around it. When programmed as a stage, the rotating platform offers the flexibility for performers to reorient themselves outwards toward a festival crowd along 4th Street or inwards toward a more intimate audience within the plaza. During un-programmed times, the carousel provides an active platform for physical engagement and visual play."

Jessica Colangelo and Charles Sharpless present Ground Rules
Institution: University of Arkansas

Project Details: "Ground Rules floats an elevated playing court and seating under the concrete colonnade of the Cummins Corporate Office Building. The project responds to the monumental existing structure and its systematic deployment across the site by inserting an architectural folly within the gridded structure that creates a spontaneous gathering space for office workers and downtown pedestrians alike. By echoing the existing horizontality of the monolithic beams. Soaring overhead, Ground Rules establishes its visual presence by striking a new horizontal space hovering just above the ground. In juxtaposition to the weighty permanence of the concrete structure, this new boardwalk is lightweight and temporary in its materiality, constructed from upcycled lumber and recycled artificial turf."

Halina Steiner, Tameka Baba, Forbes Lipschitz, and Shelby Doyle present Pipe Up!
Institution(s): The Ohio State University and Iowa State University

Project Details: "A vast network of buried pipes moves water throughout the built environment. They can also transport excess nutrients, dissolved pollutants, and sediment-bound toxins to downstream waterbodies, contaminating freshwater sources and impairing the health and vitality of aquatic ecosystems. As an installation, PIPE UP! makes visible the subterranean water infrastructure of urban development and agricultural production, telling a visual, kinesthetic story about altered hydrologies. Comprised of four site elements using off-the-shelf products, PIPE UP! is a standing field of 150 charlotte pipes topped by 700 feet of undulating tile drains. Three suspended rain clouds made of flagging tape and 12 poufs representing toxic sediment scattered across the site help to create a vibrant and tactile display of invisible infrastructure."

Esteban Garcia Bravo and Maria Clara Morales presents Prisma
Institution: Purdue University

Project Details: "PRISMA is an interactive and immersive light installation that invites Columbus residents to re-activate “invisible” urban spaces with renewed excitement. Inspired by Columbus' modern architectural legacy, we utilize the rectangular prism as a foundation to create an open-air tunnel with a free-flowing, animated lighted experience [...] Our project aims to offer the city of Columbus a public place to reconnect and celebrate the colorful diversity of life."

Deborah Garcia presents Meet Me at the Sunken Courtyard
Institution: Massachusets Institute of Technology

Project Details: "At the library—we will listen to a rumbling. From the intimate sounds of our own voices to the haunting echoes of Modernism to the grinding of ancient tectonic plates. When we hear we will remember. The Library will sing to us softly at night. The Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano writes: “Recordar: To remember; from the Latin records, to pass back through the heart.” That is what we will do when we engage with RECORDAR. We will pass some history—immediate history and deep history—back through the heart and there allow the heart to skip a beat or to break or to mend."

Katie MacDonald and Kyle Schumann present Sylvan Scrapple
Institution: University of Virginia

Project Details: "The project draws material from two streams: In Virginia, non-linear wood is composited into curving structural panels using a purpose-built robotic sawmill invented by the authors. Sylvan Scrapple develops a method of cutting and assembling these materials into curved forms, increasing the structural performance of the panels and utilizing the natural curvature of many tree species. In Indiana, bricks are salvaged from the recently lost Irwin Block and reconstituted into brightly-hued gabion cages to augment the existing walls of the Columbus Visitor’s Center landscape."

Design Engagement for a Local City

For those unfamiliar with the city of Columbus, some may mistake it for Columbus, Ohio, or recognize the city as the hometown of the multinational corporation Cummins. However, what struck me the most during my visit was the community's intentions to think differently about how an established, historic city could be. There are many other cities in the Midwest that resemble Columbus. From its history to its people, its historic charm, and hidden architectural gems, opportunities like the University Design Research Fellows foster a unique exchange between academia and civic engagement. Where the architectural prowess and innovative research of academic institutions in the Midwest can engage with a local community to learn and create a dialog with one another.

The true success of Exhibit Columbus and its stages of events: the design symposium, public engagement visits, presentations, and the design-build process (which leads up to August's exhibition) is that each programming moment helps facilitate conversation, curiosity, and engagement with community members and visitors. 

Stay tuned for more Exhibit Columbus coverage and highlights from his year's High School Design Team.