COLUMBUS, IN – The theme of the fourth cycle of Exhibit Columbus, Public by Design, builds on the legacy of Columbus, IN to explore how collaborations between communities and designers can revitalize and reimagine historic downtowns as equitable, beautiful, healthy, and joyful places. Public by Design serves as a platform for many communities to become energized about the values of inclusivity, care, and generosity. This cycle celebrates creative methods of collaboration that communities and designers can use to grow a sense of belonging and connection in public spaces.

These ideas extend through every aspect of this cycle of Exhibit Columbus, from shaping the curatorial team and process, selecting participants, and creating the format and goals of every event. Starting with the 2022 Symposium, the voices, memories, and dreams of the many communities of Columbus will be amplified and celebrated in the design process. We believe this collaborative effort and the process of co-creation will resonate far beyond the city limits of Columbus.

The 2023 Exhibition will feature temporary installations throughout downtown whose impacts will be lasting and profound. They will grow from the ideas explored in the Symposium, collaborations with community partners, and the creative imagination of the participants. The installations can serve as prototypes for permanent change in the urban core of this city and examples for other communities to consider.

Public by Design represents an opportunity for each of us to play new and transformative roles in shaping a public life that is more connected to public places and public institutions.

2022-23 Curatorial Partners
Paola Aguirre, Urban Designer at BORDERLESS; Chris Merritt, Landscape Architect at Merritt Chase; Lauren M. Pacheco, Civic and Cultural Artist at Steel Studio Foundation; Bryony Roberts, Designer, Writer, Educator at Bryony Roberts Studio; Raymund Ryan, Curator at Large at The Heinz Architectural Center at Carnegie Museum of Art; and Holly Warren, Assistant Director for the Arts at City of Bloomington.

The J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize honors two great patrons of community, architecture, art, and design. J. Irwin Miller was a community leader in Columbus with a national reputation in business and activism. Irwin and his wife Xenia helped bring twentieth-century architectural masterpieces to Columbus through public-private coalitions, a process known as the Columbus Way. The Miller Prize brings architectural excellence fostered by the Millers into dialogue with the best of twenty-first-century design, making it relevant to new audiences. By collaborating with architects, artists, and designers, the Millers’ life-long effort was to help make Columbus the best possible community of its size. The Miller Prize honors their legacy by furthering that mission.

“In collaboration with the Community Curators, we were able to meaningfully align the J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Recipients with public institutions in Columbus. These Miller Prize participants are remarkable for their creative approaches to community-based design and their capacity to work across many scales, from the scale of urban design to the creation of tactile and interactive environments. They bring exciting ideas about energizing historic downtowns through collaborative co-creation with community partners. We believe their practices carry on the values of the Miller family and have the potential to create a major impact in Columbus that resonates globally. We are looking forward to meeting them all at the symposium," said the six Curatorial Partners.

Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO is a Mexico City-based architecture studio. At the core of the studio’s practice is an analysis of the context surrounding projects, which scale from master plans to affordable housing. The Studio pursues architecture through multidisciplinary perspectives and promotes a collective environment with a diverse staff of architects, academics, and model makers. The working method uses hand drawings and models to keep design and development rooted in physical and not digital exploration.

Site: Cleo Rogers Memorial Library Plaza, 1971
In partnership with Community Curator, Jason Hatton, Executive Director of The Bartholomew County Public Library (BCPL). BCPL is the community crossroads—connecting people, ideas, information, and experiences to empower everyone on their journey of lifelong learning. Designed by I.M. Pei in 1971.

Practice for Architecture Urbanism (PAU) is a Manhattan-based studio dedicated to the advancement of sustainable, equitable, and joyous cities. The studio is led by Vishaan Chakrabarti and Ruchika Modi. PAU embraces a scale-fluid design approach to a continuum of architecture and urbanism projects including civic institutions, public infrastructure, and social housing. The team of thirty, network of experienced collaborators, and their clients all come to PAU inspired by a collective desire to palpably and positively impact the world.

Site: The Commons, 2011, and Downtown Civic Infrastructure
In partnership with Community Curator, Dave Hayward, City Engineer, Executive Director of City of Columbus Department of Public Works. The City of Columbus was founded in 1821 and today serves as the county seat of Bartholomew County with a population of just over 50,000. The City received a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Grant to work with Exhibit Columbus and focus on the cultural and economic development of its historic downtown. The Commons was designed by Koetter Kim & Associates and opened in 2011.

PORT is a public realm design and planning consultancy made up of landscape architects, architects, urban designers, and planners based in Philadelphia and Chicago. The practice works across scales, contexts, and landscapes throughout the United States and abroad. PORT’s work is rooted in a belief in the transformative potential of a socially and ecologically vibrant urban public realm. By collaborating with communities to reimagine and shape these spaces, PORT delivers projects that are both forward-looking and emphatically of a place.

Site: Mill Race Center, 2011
In partnership with Community Curator, Dan Mustard, Executive Director of Mill Race Center. Mill Race Center is a community center for active adults located in Mill Race Park in Columbus, Indiana. The purpose of Mill Race Center is to develop a nationally recognized model for dynamic, comprehensive, collaborative programming for the age 50 plus population. Designed by William Rawn Associates and opened in 2011.

Studio Zewde is a landscape architecture, urban design, and public art practice based in Harlem, New York City. The studio’s work is well-known for its design methodology that syncs site interpretation and narrative with a dedication to the craft of construction. The firm’s employees have multi-disciplinary backgrounds in landscape architecture, architecture, city planning, urban design, sociology, statistics, community organizing, and public art. Studio Zewde is devoted to creating enduring places where people belong.

Site: Mill Race Park, 1993
In partnership with Community Curator, Mark Jones, Director of City of Columbus Parks and Recreation Department. Columbus' downtown park, Mill Race Park, is 83 acres and located where the Flat Rock and Driftwood Rivers join together to become the east fork of the White River which eventually connects to the Mississippi River. Designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates in 1993.

The University Design Research Fellows (UDRF) were selected through a national, open call competition for full-time university professors whose work is deeply rooted in design research. Professors were asked to respond to recommendations from the 2021 downtown activation study developed by James Lima Planning and Development (JLP+D) that looked at ways to activate the historic core of downtown Columbus. JLP+D’s work is supported by the City of Columbus and a National Endowment for the Arts “Our Town Grant.”

“The University Design Research Fellows represent a cross-section of artists, architects, and landscape architects working in the U.S. at this moment. It’s an impressive group whose research is advancing important work on sustainable materials and community-based design in the public realm,” said the 2022–23 Curatorial Partners

Joseph Altshuler is Assistant Professor of Architecture at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Co-Founder of Could Be Architecture, a Chicago and Urbana-based design practice. He is the Director of the Architectural Companionship Laboratory, a design research lab that works at the intersection of architecture, public art, environmental graphics, adaptive reuse, and tactical urbanism. His teaching, practice, and scholarship explore architecture and public art’s capacities to build lively audiences, initiate serious play, and amplify participation in civic life. His first book Creatures Are Stirring: A Guide to Architectural Companionship was published in 2022.

Zack Morrison is Co-Founder of Could Be Architecture, a Chicago- and Urbana-based design practice that designs seriously playful spaces that build solidarity among multiple communities. Morrison is also a design educator who leads participatory architecture workshops around the nation, including the educational video series “Animate Architecture” commissioned by the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Morrison is the Co-Founder of the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival, a public art exhibition that includes multiple pavilion installations, designed and built in partnership with community organizations; it celebrates the cultural heritage of the neighborhood and builds new community connections.

Esteban Garcia Bravo is Associate Professor in the department of Computer Graphics Technology at Purdue University, where he teaches digital imaging, fabrication and computational aesthetics. He is a Colombian-American artist and scholar exploring computational arts that earned his MFA from Purdue University in 2008, and a PhD in Technology, also from Purdue, in 2013. His research on computer art heritage and digital media art practices has been featured in the annual meetings of international organizations and his artwork has been displayed internationally in media art festivals, gallery exhibits, museums, public art installations, and artist-in-residence programs.

Maria Clara Morales is a Research Scholar at Purdue University, where she is focusing on developing physical and digital components of interactive art installations under the mentorship of Esteban and Davin Huston. She has extensive knowledge in 3D modeling and rendering, digital fabrication, and interactive multimedia programming. She is currently living in Bogotá, Colombia and working in interior design and furniture manufacturing.

Jessica Colangelo is Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design where she has coordinated the foundation second year studio sequence, and taught seminars around the use of storytelling in architecture and material geographies. She Co-Founded the architecture practice Somewhere Studio with Charles Sharpless. Together they work on commissioned projects including public space design, residential and commercial projects. The studio has worked in close collaboration with many arts and community-building organizations across the country.

Sharpless is Assistant Professor of Interior at the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design where he teaches foundation level design studios and design-build studios that promote student engagement with community groups through impactful design explorations that support community initiatives. He is an architect with ten years of experience in the design and construction of buildings, pavilions, and urban spaces. Previously, he practiced at Michael Maltzan Architecture, Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects, and Machado Silvetti.

Deborah Garcia is the Belluschi Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Architecture and a designer, writer, and curator. She was a recipient of the Princeton University Butler Travelling Fellowship which allowed her to be a resident at ARTFarm Nebraska, and was an invited participant for the 2019 Arctic Circle Expedition in the international territory of Svalbard, Norway. She was a Co-Curator of THE DRAWING SHOW at the A+D Architecture and Design Museum in 2017 and curator of One Night Stand for Art and Architecture-LA in 2016.

Molly Hunker is Assistant Professor at Syracuse University School of Architecture. She is also the Co-Captain of the practice, SPORTS, with Greg Corso. They approach design in a playful way, by balancing rigor and research with amusement and curiosity, and with the ambition to generate fresh and unexpected experiences of the built environment. She has worked for architecture studios and art workshops along the west coast including Doug Aitken Workshop, Talbot McLanahan Architecture, Weinstein A|U, and The LADG.

Corso is Assistant Professor at Syracuse University School of Architecture. He is also the Co-Captain of the practice, SPORTS. Much of their work has been public interventions that leverage the possibility for straightforward and high-economy design gestures to have significant urban and community impacts. He has worked in art and architecture studios in the United States and Europe including Studio Gang, JDS Architects, and Cliff Garten Studio, and has been a Fellow at the MacDowell Colony.

Katie MacDonald is Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia School of Architecture where she is Director of the Before Building Laboratory, Co-Director of the Hemp Co-Lab, and Co-Curator of the Biomaterial Building Exposition. She pioneers new biomaterial assemblies, with the aim of creating building material systems that sequester carbon and reduce construction’s contribution to the environmental crisis. She is also the Co-Founder of After Architecture with Kyle Schuman and a member of Madame Architect’s National Council.

Schumann Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia School of Architecture where he is Co-Director of the Before Building Laboratory and Co-Curator of the Biomaterial Building Exposition. He seeks to advance the accessibility of digital fabrication in his teaching and research as well as inventing and building low-cost ground-up fabrication and imaging systems. His work spans woodworking, metalworking, casting, ceramics, and textile production, to advanced and novel digital fabrication technologies, robotics, and machine visioning systems. He is also Co-Founder of After Architecture.

Halina Steiner is Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Austin E. Knowlton School at The Ohio State University. Her research, Forensic Hydrology, focuses on overlaps between professional practice, hydrology, and infrastructure with an emphasis on scale and systems. This interest comes from her prior work as Design Director for DLANDstudio in New York City where she led master planning, green infrastructure, temporary installations, and public design projects in New York, St. Louis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Nigeria.

Tameka Baba is Assistant Professor of Practice in Landscape Architecture at the Austin E. Knowlton School at The Ohio State University. Her research tracks the transition of urban vacancy, specifically those created by the retail industry. Within these landscapes her work aims to develop a system of temporary and long-term design solutions that create places for communities to exchange goods and cultures. She served as the design lead of South Jackson Community Garden located in Lima, OH as part of the Ohio Land Exchange program.

Forbes Lipschitz is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Austin E. Knowlton School at The Ohio State University. Her research investigates the potential of design to reframe and reshape conventional working landscapes. Through public installations and participatory workshops, she explores ways for design to help communities better understand and engage with agricultural systems. Her research and creative work has been published nationally and internationally.

Shelby Doyle is Associate Professor of Architecture and Stan G. Thurston Professor of Design Build at the Iowa State University College of Design. She is also Co-Founder of the ISU Computation & Construction Lab, and Director of the ISU Architectural Robotics Lab. The central hypothesis of CCL and Doyle’s work is that computation in architecture is a material, pedagogical, and social project; computation is both informed by and productive of architectural cultures.