2015 Mayor's Institute on City Design

Jim Charlier served on the resource team for the most recent Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) in Los Angeles. MICD is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts in association with the US Conference of Mayors and the American Architectural Foundation.

Now in its 30th year, the Mayors’ Institute is a leadership initiative that has helped transform communities through design by preparing mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities. MICD achieves its mission by organizing sessions where mayors engage leading design experts to find solutions to the most critical urban design challenges facing their cities. Sessions are organized around case-study problems. Each two and one-half day session is limited to fewer than twenty participants, half mayors and half a resource team, consisting of outstanding city design and development professionals. Mayors present a range of challenges, including waterfront redevelopment, downtown revitalization, transportation planning, and the design of new public buildings such as libraries and arts centers. Following each presentation, mayors and the resource team identify important issues, offer suggestions, and discuss potential solutions. The interchange sparks lively debate, opens new perspectives, and generates creative ideas.

Mayors represented at this most recent session:
Eric Garcetti (Host), Los Angeles, CA
John Giles, Mesa, AZ
Charlie Hales, Portland, OR
Carlos Hernandez, Hialeah, FL
Robert McDavid, Columbia, MO
Libby Schaaf, Oakland, CA
Ivy Taylor, San Antonio, TX

Resource team members included:
Omar Blaik, U3 Advisors, Philadelphia, PA
Jim Charlier, Charlier Associates, Boulder, CO
Susannah Drake, dlandstudio, Brooklyn, NY
William Gilchrist, City of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
Barbara Goldstein, Barbara Goldstein & Associates, San Jose, CA
Carlos Jiménez, Carlos Jiménez Studio, Houston, TX
Lawrence Scarpa, Brooks + Scarpa, Los Angeles, CA
Harriet Tregoning, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Wash, DC

For more information:

http://www.micd.org/about/