Following a nationwide selection process, SCI-Arc was announced as a regional partner and host of one of three regional sessions presented this year by the Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD). The school will organize a two-day design workshop where eight mayors from the West region will convene in a closed-door session with a team of interdisciplinary design professionals to discuss design and development issues that each participating city is currently facing.

The invited mayors will represent a diversity of cities and bring a wide variety of design issues to the table. The resource team, led by SCI-Arc faculty David Bergman and Heather Flood, will include members ranging from architects and planners to public policy specialists, developers, preservationists, lawyers, landscape architects, transportation planners, and housing experts, as well as practicing professionals and distinguished academics. Each mayor will present a design issue from his or her city to be analyzed by the other mayors and the design professionals, who will then propose design solutions to help solve the problem.

A leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the American Architectural Foundation and the United States Conference of Mayors, the Mayors’ Institute on City Design is designed to foster an understanding of and appreciation for the role of design in urban centers, and the importance of mayors as advocates for good design. Regional sessions—hosted in the South, Northeast, and West—are geared towards mid-to-small-sized cities, the institute format encouraging a high degree of participation and exchange, sparking lively debate, opening new perspectives, and leading to creative proposals for how contemporary civic design can help create more vibrant and livable cities.

The other two MICD regional partners selected this year are Syracuse University School of Architecture and the Florida Center for Community Design and Research (FCCDR) at the University of South Florida.

More info about MICD is available at www.micd.org.