53rd National Session of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design
St. Louis April 25 – 27, 2012

The Mayors’ Institute on City Design held their 53rd National Session in St. Louis, Missouri at the end of April 2012. Hosted by Mayor Francis G. Slay and the City of St. Louis, the event was attended by Mayor Peter Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana; Mayor Edna Jackson of Savannah, Georgia; Mayor Jean Quan of Oakland, California; Mayor Shelley Welsch of University City, Missouri; and Mayor William Wild of Westland, Michigan.  The session was moderated by AAF president, Ron Bogle. Session guests included Tom Cochran, CEO and executive director of The United States Conference of Mayors, and National Endowment for the Arts Chairman, Rocco Landesman.

Joining the mayors at this National Session was a distinguished group of resource team members: Peter Cook, AIA, Principal at Davis Brody Bond, LLP; Betsy Jackson, President of The Urban Agenda, Inc.; Tim Love, AIA, Principal at Utile, Inc.; Steven McKay, Associate AIA, LEED AP, Senior Principal at DLR Group; Bonnie Nelson, Principal of Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates; Margie Ruddick, Principal of Margie Ruddick Landscape Architecture; and Shin-pei Tsay, LEED AP, Director of Cities and Transportation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The experts listed above in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, real estate, transportation, and historic preservation joined the mayors in the two-and-a-half-day discussions. They offered pragmatic advice on how the mayors could approach the urban design challenges facing each of their cities. Click here to read further details about each project as well as goals for the session. We’d like to give a warm thank you to sponsor, United Technologies Corporation, for their continued support. We also would like to thank Unico as well as Cannon Design for hosting the working session in their St. Louis office.

The Mayors’ Institute on City Design is a National Endowment for the Arts leadership initiative in partnership with the American Architectural Foundation and the United States Conference of Mayors. The 53^rd National Session was sponsored in part by United Technologies Corporation.  Since 1986, the Mayors’ Institute has helped transform communities through design by preparing mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities.  The Mayors’ Institute conducts several sessions each year. For a list of upcoming events, past attendees, or for more information, visit www.micd.org.

{Image courtesy of MICD}