Celebrating 25 Years of City Design: Mayors To Identify Challenges, Opportunities and Funding Sources Through Summit on Smart City Design, Honor Design Legacy of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley in Chicago, April 27-29, 2011

Event Brings Together Mayors, Obama Cabinet Members, Top Design Professionals, and Special Guests To Examine the State of U.S. Cities and the Power of Arts & Design

Key sessions to be live webcast**

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mayors and design and development experts will convene at the Chicago Hilton April 27-29 for a National Summit on City Design to identify challenges, opportunities and funding sources for cities that work well.   Participants will examine the power of arts and design to transform cities while celebrating the Mayors Institute of City Design (MICD) – a collaboration of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM), and the American Architectural Foundation (AAF) – and honoring the design legacy of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110125/MM36443LOGO)

For 25 years, MICD has been the only organization that provides mayors an opportunity to learn how smart design can help to holistically solve problems in communities to create livable cities.  Smart design is, fundamentally, a language of problem solving and through MICD, mayors learn to use smart design to identify ways to creatively reduce costs through innovation in areas such as public transit, downtown development infrastructure and sustainability.

During the two-day summit, mayors and design professionals will come together to discuss the successes and lessons from MICD, as well as the topics key to the future of American cities.  The highlight of the session will be on its final day, April 29, where more than 40 mayors and 80 design professionals and scholars will honor Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley as he receives the Joseph P. Riley Award for Leadership in Urban Design. As Chicago's longest serving mayor, Daley is described by USCM's CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran as a "Mayor's Mayor."

On the first full day, April 28, the mayors and design experts will discuss design in relationship with struggling budgets and growing demands for transportation, development, and other challenges. On April 29th, Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, and Charleston, South Carolina Mayor Joseph Riley, along with Marilyn Taylor, Chris Leinberger, Toni Griffin, and other design professionals, will present their joint conclusions to a panel of federal officials, including NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and U.S. Department of Transportation Under Secretary Roy W. Kienitz.

Also on April 28, summit participants will release an NEA Research Report that measures the economic impact of performing arts institutions on local economies and details the degree of citizens' investment in the arts.  Among the report's findings is that the U.S. performing arts industry is supported by the nearly 8,840 organizations and generates nearly $13.6 billion in annual revenues.

The opening keynote address, titled "Culture Now:  The Contemporary American Condition," will be given by Thom Mayne, of Morphosis Architects and President Obama's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Through his work, Mayne seeks to spark transformative change on struggling U.S. cities.

SUMMIT SCHEDULE

** Indicates live webcasting of key sessions.  Please join the Twitter conversation at #MICD50 and watch the daily mini interviews with mayors at www.usmayors.org.

THURSDAY, APRIL 28

9:00 –10:45 a.m. **OPENING PLENARY

Welcome

• Jason Schupbach, NEA Design Director & Summit Moderator
• Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley
• Rocco Landesman, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts
• Elizabeth Kautz, Mayor, City of Burnsville and President, U.S. Conference of Mayors
• Ronald Bogle, President and CEO, American Architectural Foundation

The Legacy of the Mayors' Institute on City Design

• Joseph P. Riley, Jr., Mayor, City of Charleston

Video Presentation:  25 Years of the Mayors' Institute of City Design

Keynote Address: Thom Mayne, Morphosis Architects

"Culture Now: The Contemporary American Condition"

11:00—11:45 a.m. PRESS CONFERENCE

Release of NEA Report that Shows the Tremendous Economic Impact of the Arts on Communities – "Time and Money: Using Federal Data to Explore the Value of Selected Arts Activities."

12:00 – 1:30 p.m. **LUNCH

How Design Has Shaped Chicago

• Lee Bey, Executive Director, Chicago Central Area Committee
• Gerald Adelmann, President and CEO, Openlands
• Barbara Gaines, Artistic Director, Chicago Shakespeare Theater

2:00 – 4:15 p.m. AFTERNOON FORUMS: The following forums take place simultaneously.

Design and Transportation: Parking, alternative transportation, transforming old transportation infrastructure, greenways and blueways. Panel includes:

• Manny Diaz, Former Mayor, City of Miami, USCM Past President (moderator)
• Janette Sadik-Khan, NYC Department of Transportation
• Jeff Tumlin, Principal, Nelson\Nygaard
• Peter Park, Manager of Community Planning & Development, City of Denver

Roundtable Facilitator: Marilyn Taylor, Dean, University of Pennsylvania School of Design

Design and Development: Transit-oriented development, downtown development, historic preservation and adaptive reuse, creative placemaking, leveraging waterfronts. Panel includes:

• Michael A. Nutter, Mayor, City of Philadelphia (moderator)
• Mary Margaret Jones, President/Senior Principal, Hargreaves Associates
• Richard Baron, Co-founder/Chairman, McCormack Baron Salazar
• Mitch Silver, Director, Department of City Planning & Urban Design, City of Raleigh

Roundtable Facilitator: Chris Leinberger, Visiting Fellow, Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings Institution

Design and 21^st Century Challenges: Sustainable infrastructure, aging in place, smart cities, climate adaptation, safety and security. Panel includes:

• Joseph P. Riley, Jr. (moderator)
• Teddy Cruz, Estudio Teddy Cruz
• John Tolva, Global Program Manager for Cultural Strategies & Programs, IBM
• David Burney, Commissioner, Department of Design and Construction, City of New York

Roundtable Facilitator: Toni Griffin, President, Urban Design and Planning for the American City, Adjunct Associate Professor, Harvard GSD

FRIDAY, APRIL 29

9:00 – 11:30 a.m. **PRESENTATIONS AND PANEL DISCUSSIONS

Refining the Message: Working Session on Key Challenges and Opportunities in Creating Complete Communities

• Jason Schupbach (moderator)
• Manny Diaz
• Marilyn Taylor
• Michael A. Nutter
• Chris Leinberger
• Joseph P. Riley, Jr.
• Toni Griffin

Forum Recommendations and Federal Response

• Rocco Landesman
• Shaun Donovan, Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Roy W. Kienitz, Under Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation
• Antonio R. Villaraigosa, Mayor, City of Los Angeles, USCM Vice President

11:30 a.m. PRESS AVAILABILITY

Participating Mayors to Honor The Design Legacy of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley

12:30 – 2:30 p.m. **LUNCH: The Design Legacy of Mayor Richard M. Daley

Moderator, Tom Cochran, USCM CEO & Executive Director

Remarks of Appreciation of Mayor Daley:

• USCM President Elizabeth Kautz, Mayor, City of Burnsville
• USCM Vice President Antonio R. Villaraigosa
• USCM Second Vice President Michael A. Nutter, Mayor City of Philadelphia

Presentation of Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Award for Leadership in Urban Design to Mayor Daley (Annual Award Sponsored by USCM and AAF for Mayors who display leadership in City Design).

• USCM President Elizabeth Kautz, Mayor, City of Burnsville, USCM President
• Joseph P. Riley, Jr., Mayor, City of Charleston, USCM Past President
• Ronald Bogle, President and CEO, AAF

Remarks by Richard M. Daley, Mayor, City of Chicago, USCM Past President

Keynote Address by Rocco Landesman, Chairman, NEA

SOURCE The U.S. Conference of Mayors