AIA Kansas City: The American Institute of Architects

Eight teams comprised of five designers from various disciplines, including architects, industrial designers, graphic designers, planners, fashion designers, photographers and students will work fast and furious competing to solve a problem for an area non-profit.

KCDW Grand Marshall, Kay Barnes, will introduce the inaugural celebration of design in Kansas City. Design Challenge teams will present their design concept solutions to a panel of local celebrity design judges including Kay Barnes, Jonathan Kemnitzer, Dan Maginn and Ann Willoughby.

Please register at http://www.kcdesignweek.org/contact/registration/

GET ON BOARD WITH WTS The Women’s Transportation Seminar, founded in 1977, works to advance women in transportation with a membership of roughly 4,100 female and male professionals. WTS has nearly 44 chapters across the US, Canada, and Europe.

Ms. Deb Miller – KDOT Secretary of Transportation With 20+ years in transportation and policy, Ms. Deb Miller is the first female KDOT Secretary of Transportation. Appointed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in 2003, Ms. Miller is in her second term. Speaking at the Inaugural WTS Kick-off, she will share her personal transportation story.

Join us at the WTS Kick-off Event, where you can learn more about the organization firsthand. Hear from Secretary Miller and WTS International President Elaine Dezenski. Learn how the new KC Chapter can help to advance your career through professional development opportunities, programs and scholarship.

Catered by Avenues Bistro
$25/person

Please RSVP by C.O.B. Tuesday 1/26 with your name, company, address, email and phone number. Event Cap: 40 attendees. Send to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Cash/Check made out to WTS collected at door. No credit cards accepted. NO refunds. Send a friend if you cannot make it! Once you RSVP, we commit you to purchase your ticket.

Peter Park, Director of Planning and Community Development for the City and County of Denver, CO, focuses on the mechanics of restoring urban character and rejecting the suburban alternative of multiple car lanes, sprawling surface parking lots, and segregated land uses. Park had previously captured national attention for turning Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist’s expansive vision of walkable, neighborhood-focused development into the nuts and bolts of city policy– until Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper snagged him.

Please register at http://www.kcdesignweek.org/contact/registration/

Sol Sender discusses his experiences developing the Barack Obama campaign logo and “political brand” on Tuesday, February 2, at 6:30 p.m. at the Plaza Branch, 4801 Main St.

The Obama “brand” has received much recognition not only within the design community, but throughout the nation and abroad. “Reinforced with a coherent, comprehensive program of fonts, logos, slogans, and web design, Obama is the first presidential candidate to be marketed like a high-end consumer brand,” Newsweek wrote.

Sender, founder and principal of Sender LLC, spearheaded the logo development for Obama’s 2008 campaign. Now an associate partner with VSA Partners, he works across disciplines to impact the communications of some of the world’s most valuable businesses and brands.

Sender’s work has been recognized by the Webby Awards, the International Web Awards, Communication Arts,and HOW Magazine. He was a finalist for the Brit Insurance Design of the Year. His articles on design history and design education have been published and distributed by Allworth Press.

The event is co-sponsored by the American Institute of Architects Kansas City in conjunction with Kansas City Design Alliance Design Week.

Admission is free. A 6 p.m. reception precedes the event. Call 816.701.3407 or RSVP online.

Visit http://www.kcdesignweek.org for more event details.

What is the future of work, workers and workplaces? David Lathrop, Director of Research and Strategy for Steelcase, Inc., will be giving an enlightening presentation on how design of workplace can affect productivity.

As an expert on future trends in the office, Dave has been a featured speaker at a number of national conferences sponsored by groups such as the AIA, IFMA, the Conference Board, the American Management Association, AECRE, the International Interior Design Association and the International Society of Facility Executives. He has been published in the Harvard Business Review, Design Management Journal, and other publications.

Steelcase Inc., the world’s preeminent designer of products and services that help create great experiences, wherever work happens. The company is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Mich.

This event is SOLD OUT

Through the eyes and inspiration of the socially responsible Designtex Studio, to the careful hands of the Afghani weavers, a meaningful collection of one-of-a-kind rugs is brought to life. In collaboration with Arzu Studio Hope this luxurious collection of rugs is made up of six modern rugs designs, using wool bred from sheep in Afghanistan and natural dyes derived from local plants and fruits. Kimberle Frost, Vice President of Design for Designtex, will be speaking about their collaboration with this amazing organization.

Kimberle Frost serves as the Vice President of Design at Designtex, a place where she has served as a consultant for the past 11 years. With a true love for color and an acute sense of trends for both fashion and home, Kimberle consistently creates collections with the performance, price and aesthetic characteristics that appeal to designers and customers. She most recently served as Co-Creative Leader where she created many successful product launches for Designtex, including the award winning Kimono and Alchemy collections and most recently the Common Threads collection.

Designtex is a design and product development firm that celebrates inquiry and collaboration. A Steelcase (NYSE:scs) company, the Designtex family of products includes: Designtex (textiles, walls, panel fabrics, drapery, cubicles and digital printed surface imaging), Fusion (architectural panels) and loophouse (hand-made rugs). Designtex maintains showrooms, offices and sales locations in 110 global locations. For more information call 800-221-1540 or visit http://www.designtex.com.

Please register at http://www.kcdesignweek.org/contact/registration/

The UMKC Urban Planning + Design Students will be hosting an event at Grinders West next Wednesday February 3rd from 7 to 10 p.m.

A portion of the sales raised will go to the students for their trip to New Orleans for a National Planning Conference. Everyone is invited to come eat and celebrate design week. Grinders West is located at 415 E. 18th St, Kansas City, Mo.

For questions please contact Amanda DeBrot at 816.809.4414 or
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). We hope to see you there!

HOW WILL WE GROW?
An adaptive land-use scenario for Greater Kansas City

Learn how choices we make today will impact our future at public meetings on Feb. 3, 4 or 11

Frank Lenk, the Mid-America Regional Council’s research services director, is working with a Technical Forecast Committee on a future land-use forecast to support the new long-range transportation plan for the Kansas City area, Transportation Outlook 2040.

Over the next 30 years, the region can expect to add 500,000 people and 300,000 jobs, and the future land-use scenarios under consideration show alternate ways of accommodating overall growth. Under a baseline scenario — where past trends continue into the future — nearly all the region’s growth over the next 30 years occurs on previously undeveloped land.

But through focused development, we can grow smarter. The adaptive scenario assumes that 40 percent of population and job growth between now and 2040 will be concentrated in activity centers and along key corridors in existing areas, older suburbs and urban places. This would lead to major differences in infrastructure costs, amount of land used, roadway congestion and transit ridership levels.

How much of the adaptive growth scenario do you think the region can achieve? What policies must we use to get there?

Learn about the Garmin design process from product development and branding to product release from Garmin design leaders Kyle Johnston, David Tierney-Kanning, Yoshi Sato and Warren Stevens along with moderator Michael Eckersley, principal of HumanCentered. Bring your lunch to this brown-bag event.

Please register at http://www.kcdesignweek.org/contact/registration/