Meanderings: Advocacy, Complexity & Opportunities in the Urban Sphere
Please join us Wednesday, October 18th at 5:30PM for a lecture at the CUDC featuring Sharon Wohl, Associate Dean of Kent State University’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design.
In-person event at the CUDC with Zoom Livestream
Reception / light dinner at 5:30pm | Lecture at 6pm
Dr. Wohl's presentation will focus on both her research and advocacy work, exploring strategic ways in which design advocacy work can elevate the role of designers, and new potentials for integrating technologies into the built environment - with an emphasis on how technological enabled built interfaces (Internet of Things) can create more adaptive, responsive living environments.
Sharon Wohl’s research considers how cities operate as Complex Adaptive Systems and how certain characteristics of urban form can support an urban environment's capacity to self-organize, enabling emergent features to appear that, while unplanned, remain highly functional.
Dr. Wohl holds a Masters degree in Architecture and a PhD in Spatial Planning and Strategy from Delft Technical University in the Netherlands. Her research examines how principles of complex adaptive systems can be operationalized within the built environment, with a focus on urban systems. Her expertise in complexity has been recognized in various ways: through a research fellowship with the Institute for Advanced Studies in Amsterdam, a group dedicated to cross-disciplinary investigations into complex systems, as well as invitations for a range of speaking/guest lecture events.
As of the summer of 2023, she joined Kent State University as Associate Dean in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. Previously, she served as Interim Associate Dean for the College of Design at Iowa State University, where she was also the named FRK Faculty Fellow. Prior to moving to the United States, she practiced with the award winning Winnipeg-based architectural firm, 5468796 Architecture. She was also a founding board member of Storefront Manitoba, a design advocacy group that aims to build public awareness and appreciation for the role of design.
One AICP Certification Maintenance credit is available for this session.
Grow a vocation
Please join us Friday, October 27th from 12 -1 PM for a lecture at the CUDC featuring Savina Romano.
In-person event at the CUDC, 1309 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200, Cleveland, Ohio & Zoom Livestream
Free and open to the public. | A light lunch will be served.
Savina’s talk will focus on practicing in a global context, tackling environment/sustainability realities in various climates, what it means to “champion" a project, encouraging community co-authorship, never losing your “sixth sense”. The event will include a “how to” exercise - "grow your career”
Most interested in pushing the boundaries of architectural scale and its effect on larger contexts, Savina Romanos practices and teaches in New York City. In her decade at !melk, Savina has led large scale master plans and urban design projects from concept to implementation, both stateside and internationally. Deeply entrenched in the quality of design and the overall character and narrative of urban environments, Savina is adept at developing new and refreshing - but always contextually rooted - urban form. She holds a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Architecture from The Cooper Union, from which her projects have been published and exhibited internationally.
One AICP Certification Maintenance credit is available for this session.
Architectures of Spatial Justice
Please join us Friday, November 17th from 12 -1 pm for a lecture at the CUDC featuring Dana Cuff.
In-person event at the CUDC, 1309 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200, Cleveland with Zoom Livestream
Light lunch will be served. Free and open to all.
Dana Cuff will give a talk and lead a roundtable conversation focusing on her new book, Architectures of Spatial Justice — a field-defining work that demonstrates how architects are breaking with professional conventions to advance spatial justice and design more equitable buildings and cities.
Book cover for Architectures of Spatial Justice by Dana Cuff. List of topics covered in the book including: Architecture at the Heart of Spatial Justice, Leveraging Design, Radically Public Architecture, Partnerships of Difference, Generative Demonstrations, Legible Policy, Critical Junctures, Architecture’s Practical Future
As state violence, the pandemic, and environmental collapse have exposed systemic inequities, architects and urbanists have been pushed to confront how their actions contribute to racism and climate crisis—and how they can effect change. Establishing an ethics of spatial justice to lead architecture forward, Professor Cuff shows why the discipline requires critical examination—in relation to not only buildings and the capital required to realize them but privilege, power, aesthetics, and sociality. That is, it requires a reevaluation of architecture's fundamental tenets.
Emerging from more than two decades of the author's own project-based research, Architectures of Spatial Justice examines ethically driven practices that break with professional conventions to correct long-standing inequities in the built environment, uncovering architecture's limits—and its potential.
Photo of Dana Cuff against a white background
Dana Cuff is a professor, author, and scholar in architecture and urbanism at the University of California, Los Angeles where she is also the founding director of cityLAB, a think tank that explores design innovations in the emerging metropolis. Since receiving her Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, Cuff has published and lectured widely about postwar Los Angeles, modern American urbanism, the architectural profession, affordable housing, and spatially embedded computing. Two books have been particularly important: Architecture: the Story of Practice which remains an influential text about the culture of the design profession, and The Provisional City, a study of residential architecture’s role in transforming Los Angeles over the past century. Her urban and architectural research now span across continents to Sweden, China, Japan, and Mexico. In 2013 and 2016, Cuff received major, multi-year awards from the Mellon Foundation for the Urban Humanities Initiative, bringing design and the humanities together at UCLA.
One AICP Certification Maintenance credit is available for this session.
Preserving the Vanishing City
Please join us Friday, October 20th from 12 -1 PM for a lecture at the CUDC featuring Dr. Stephanie Ryberg Webster.
In-person event at the CUDC with Zoom Livestream
Dr. Ryberg-Webster will present work from her recent book, Preserving the Vanishing City. The talk focuses on the history of historic preservation in Cleveland during the 1970s and 1980s.
Dr. Ryberg-Webster is an Associate Professor of Urban Studies in the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. Her research explores the complex intersections of historic preservation and urban development, including preservation (and demolition) in legacy cities, synergies and tensions between preservation and community development, federal and state historic rehabilitation tax credits, and social inclusion in preservation, including the preservation of Cleveland's African American heritage. Dr. Ryberg-Webster's current work explores the history of historic preservation in Cleveland during the 1970s and early 1980s, as urban disinvestment escalated. Dr. Ryberg-Webster teaches courses in urban planning, historic preservation, urban design, the city and film, and contemporary urban issues. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Historic Preservation from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Urban Planning from the University of Cincinnati.
Her lecture will shed light on the progressive formation of the city's historic preservation sector, early efforts to preserve Cleveland's industrial heritage, innovations in preservation in the Warehouse District, and neighborhood preservation efforts. While the book focuses on the history of historic preservation, many of these issues and topics retain contemporary relevance in decision-making about the future of Cleveland's historic built environment.
Free and open to the public. Light refreshments provided.
Preserving the Vanishing City can be purchased here.
One AICP Certification Maintenance credit is available for this session.
Friday, October 20, 2023
Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative
1309 Euclid Ave. Ste. 200
Cleveland, OH 44115
Recruiting & Retaining a Diverse Workforce
Please join us Wednesday, September 27, 2023 at 5pm for a workshop, Recruiting & Retaining a Diverse Workforce: Exploring Barriers & Strategies.
This workshop is designed to examine potential barriers with hiring and keeping a diverse workforce in architecture and design firms. This class will be taught by Dawn Mayes, Director of Design Entrepreneurship and Inclusion at Kent State’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC).
The workshop is a collaboration between the CUDC and the Cleveland AIA. It’s an in-person only event, but it will be recorded and posted to the CUDC’s website if you can’t make it on September 27.
Learning Objectives:
Attendees will identify and learn about different barriers which limit diverse candidates from applying or being interviewed at potential firms.
Attendees will learn about potential hiring practices that can increase the pool of diverse candidates applying for jobs at their firms.
Attendees will explore ways that strategic partnerships can increase visibility with more diverse candidates wanting to work at their firms.
Attendees will learn how to create a recruitment infrastructure within their firms that promote diversity equity and inclusion beyond the hire date within their firms.
Doors open at 5:00 for networking and program begins at 5:30 pm. Refreshments will be served.
Cost: Free
1 LU CEU
Dawn Mayes, Director of Design Entrepreneurship & Inclusion at the CUDC
Dawn N. Mayes is the Director of Design Entrepreneurship and Inclusion at Kent State’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative. Her role includes creating viable pipelines for HBCU students to attend graduate school, providing technical assistance to startup architecture and design firms, and organizing lectures and programs that raise awareness about design entrepreneurship and diversity.
Some of Dawn’s past roles include serving as the Senior Program Manager for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at APB Associates. In this role, Dawn led efforts related to the renovations of Progressive Field, as well as being apart of the owner’s rep team for the Cleveland Guardians. This role included creating a pipeline of minority businesses ready to bid on construction projects; creating capacity building workshops to assist with efficiency, scaling, and basic business necessities. 150 small businesses participated in her workshop series.
As a serial entrepreneur, Dawn shares one of her natural born talents to promote healing communities. Her company, Designs by Danico is her online store that sells her original artwork on canvas. Her tagline: Healing People and Places Through Art allows her creative space to empower her audience. Her original works include intentional color selections, the use of symbolism, and Reiki to share messages of self-healing, self-care and empowerment.
Dawn grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. She is an Army veteran, an artist, an entrepreneur, a proud Florida A & M University graduate, where she received her Bachelors of Architectural Studies, and an alumna of Kent State University where she received her Masters in Architecture with a Certificate in Urban Design. In early 2022, she was also awarded an Artist Residency for Karamu House’s Resident in the House program. She is a graduate from Case Western Reserve University’s Executive Leadership Development Experience which is the inaugural cohort of Black and Brown leaders exclusively. She is a charter member of the Greater Cleveland Chapter of FAMU National Alumni Association and serves as the chapter President.
Fall 2023 Lecture Series at the CUDC
Image of the Cleveland skyline with landscape texture.
Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, Kent State University
1309 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200 | Cleveland, Ohio USA
Kent State’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC) announces our Fall 2023 schedule of lectures and programs, organized around the theme, The Ways We (should) Live Now. Lectures in this series will inspire you to look at cities differently and envision a better and more equitable future.
The series launches on a Thursday evening, September 27, 2023, with a lecture by Dawn Mayes, CUDC’s Director of Design Entrepreneurship and Inclusion, in partnership with AIA Cleveland, Recruiting & Retaining a Diverse Workforce: Exploring Barriers and Strategies.
On October 18th, 2023 an evening lecture by Sharon Wohl, new Associate Dean at Kent State’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design. The event will begin with reception at 5:30 pm, to welcome Sharon to Northeast Ohio and introduce her to Cleveland’s design community. At 6 pm, she will give a talk titled Meanderings: Advocacy, Complexity, and Opportunities in the Urban Sphere.
At noon on Friday, October 20th, Stephanie Ryberg-Webster will give a lecture at the CUDC based on her new book, Preserving the Vanishing City: Historic Preservation amid Urban Decline in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Ryberg-Webster is an Associate Professor in the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs in the Levin College of Public Affairs and Education at Cleveland State University.
Savina Romanos, an architect and urban designer at !melk in New York City, will give a lecture at noon on Friday, October 27th titled Grow a Vocation. Most interested in pushing the boundaries of architectural scale and its effect on larger contexts, Savina has led large scale master plans and urban design projects from concept to implementation, both stateside and internationally. Deeply entrenched in the quality of design and the overall character and narrative of urban environments, Savina is adept at developing new and refreshing - but always contextually rooted - urban form.
In partnership with Third Space Action Lab, the CUDC will welcome Omari Souza on October 9th for a lecture in conjunction with the release of his new book, An Anthology of Blackness: The State of Black Design. The Anthology is an adventurous collection that examines how the design field has consistently failed to attract and support Black professionals—and how to create an anti-racist, pro-Black design industry instead. This special event will be held at Third Space Action Lab, 1464 E. 105 Street in Cleveland. It will begin with a reception at 5:30 pm, followed by Professor Souza’s talk, Inclusivity Matters: Elevating Voices in the Anthology of Blackness.
The final program in the series will be a lecture and roundtable discussion with Dana Cuff at noon on November 17. Professor Cuff, founding director of cityLAB at UCLA will talk about her new book, Architectures of Spatial Justice — a field-defining work that demonstrates how architects are breaking with professional conventions to advance spatial justice and design more equitable buildings and cities.
The complete program calendar appears below. All programs are free and open to the public.
Recruiting & Retaining a Diverse Workforce: Exploring Barriers and Strategies
September 27, 2023 | 5:00 - 6:30 pm
In-person event at the CUDC in partnership with AIA Cleveland
Refreshments will be served.
Meanderings: Advocacy, Complexity & Opportunities in the Urban Sphere with Sharon Wohl
October 18, 2023 | 5:30 - 7 pm
In-person event at the CUDC with Zoom Livestream
Reception at 5:30 pm; lecture at 6 pm. Refreshments will be served.
One AICP Certification Maintenance credit is available for this lecture.
Preserving the Vanishing City: Historic Preservation amid Urban Decline in Cleveland, Ohio
October 20, 2023 | noon - 1 pm
In-person event at the CUDC with Zoom Livestream
Refreshments will be served.
One AICP Certification Maintenance credit is available for this lecture.
Grow a Vocation with Savina Romanos
October 27, 2023 | noon-1pm
In-person event at the CUDC with Zoom Livestream
Refreshments will be served.
One AICP Certification Maintenance credit is available for this lecture.
Inclusivity Matters: Elevating Voices in the Anthology of Blackness with Omari Souza
November 9th | 5:30 - 7 pm
In-person event at Third Space Action Lab, 1464 E 105th Street in Cleveland, Ohio with Zoom Livestream
Reception at 5:30 pm; lecture at 6 pm. Refreshments will be served. Book signing follows the lecture.
One AICP Certification Maintenance credit is available for this lecture.
Architectures of Spatial Justice with Dana Cuff
November 17, 2023 | noon-1pm
In-person event at the CUDC with Zoom Livestream
A light lunch will be served.
One AICP Certification Maintenance credit is available for this lecture.
Please see individual event pages for full details and the most up-to-date information. Contact the CUDC at cudc@kent.edu or 216.357.3434.
Sketches on Everlasting Plastics
The US Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice is showcasing a project called Everlasting Plastics, curated by SPACES, a Cleveland-based arts organization. The first part of this project, titled Sketches on Everlasting Plastics, aims to explore the diverse ways plastic has become an integral part of our lives.
Instead of taking a clear stance for or against plastic, the project seeks to delve into our complex connections with this material. It aims to understand how plastic affects our lives, our cultures, and our environment, both in terms of harm and potential benefits for our collective future.
Sketches on Everlasting Plastics emphasizes collaboration between institutions, disciplines, and different forms of expression. It's not just a book or an exhibition but an interactive experience meant to spark a broader conversation about plastic and its impact on our society. Through this project, a new way of understanding plastic and its significance begins to take shape.
Edited by Isabelle Kirkham-Lewitt and Joanna Joseph of Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, the publication includes contributions by Tizziana Baldenebro, Kristen Bos, K. Jake Chakasim, Sky Cubacub, Heather Davis, Jennifer Gabrys, Stephanie Ginese, Aurelia Guo, Adam Hanieh, Ilana Harris-Babou, Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, Carolyn L. Kane, Laleh Khalili, Anjuli Fatima Raza Kolb, Naa Oyo A. Kwate, Esther Leslie, Lauren Leving, Ani Liu, Adie Mitchell, Timothy Mitchell, Gabrielle Printz, Kyla Schuller, Terry Schwarz, Pallavi Sen, Ayesha A. Siddiqi, and RA Washington.
Design Charrette: Broadview Bend & Brighton Park
Each year, graduate students from Kent State’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design and the staff of the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative partner with a community organization on a Community Design Charrette. A charrette is a short, intense community workshop that addresses a real-life urban design and community development challenge.
Brighton Park, a new green space in Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood that is part of the Cleveland Metroparks system.
The 2023 charrette took place March 10-12, in collaboration with the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation, Cleveland Metroparks, and the Western Reserve Land Conservancy. The event included middle and high school students from the CUDC’s Making Our Own Space Rapid Response Team who have been working in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood for over a year.
Making Our Own Space Coordinator Ben Herring on a site visit with MOOS students on Broadview Road in Old Brooklyn.
The charrette focused on Brighton Park, a new green space established and operated by Cleveland Metroparks on the site of the former Heninger Landfill on Pearl Road. The charrette also focused on Broadview Bend, a mixed use district that turns the corner from Pearl Road to Broadview Road. During the charrette, students and community stakeholders explored the relationships between Brighton Park and Broadview Bend, reflecting on the history of the neighborhood while identifying new infrastructure investments, development opportunities, and public amenities. Broadview Bend is the boundary between Wards 12 and 13 so the charrette also explored the spaces where the two wards come together.
Small teams of MOOS students and graduate students looked at:
Broadview Avenue: proposals for infill development and infrastructure investments throughout the corridor.
Entry points into Brighton Park: strategies for integrating the park into the neighborhood and drawing people in at all the locations where the park and the neighborhood intersect.
Broadview and Pearl Road intersection: ideas for anchoring the neighborhood and pointing visitors and residents toward neighborhood amenities.
MOOS students measuring street widths and exploring options for pedestrian improvements.
Community input was encouraged throughout the charrette process. Design recommendations are summarized in this Community Presentation.
For more information, please contact the CUDC at cudc@kent.edu or 216.357.3434.
Pedestrian enhancements and wayfinding signage at the intersection of Broadview and Pearl Roads.
Welcome Dawn Mayes, New Director of Design Entrepreneurship and Inclusion!
Kent State’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design welcomes Dawn Mayes, the inaugural Director of Design Entrepreneurship and Inclusion at Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC).
The CUDC created the new Design Entrepreneurship and Inclusion initiative to support the development of new design firms and to expand the diversity of design practitioners in Northeast Ohio. The Cleveland Foundation has provided generous funding for this important new initiative.
After an extensive national search, the CUDC is thrilled to launch the program under the leadership of a Kent State graduate. Dawn has a Masters of Architecture with a Certificate in Urban Design from Kent State, and a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies from Florida A&M University.
Dawn has worked for local architecture firms, including Robert P. Madison International and Ubiquitous Design, in addition to running her own business, Designs by Danico. She also served as Senior Program Manager of DEI for the Cleveland Guardians’ Progressive Field Renovations, advising team leadership on meeting and exceeding their goals for diversity and inclusion in large construction projects.
“It was a struggle as a minority to see myself succeeding in the design industry due to the lack of diversity,” said Dawn. “This new initiative is a step in the right direction to allow room for growth, expansion, and innovation within the DEI realm and design industry.”
In her new position, Dawn will provide coaching and technical assistance for designers starting their own firms, with targeted assistance toward young professionals and Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian-American designers. She’ll also work with local developers, non-profits, and government agencies to expand the diversity of designers in leadership roles on civic, institutional, and private sector design and development projects in Northeast Ohio. She will also create a viable pipeline for more diverse student enrollment through intentional partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).
“Dawn is a visionary who will work to strengthen pathways into the design professions for women and people of color,” said Terry Schwarz, Director of the CUDC. “We’re excited to see how this new initiative will unfold.”
For more information, contact Dawn at dmayes@kent.edu.
New Handbook on Shrinking Cities
Just Published: HANDBOOK ON SHRINKING CITIES
Compelling and engaging, this Handbook on Shrinking Cities addresses the fundamentals of urban population loss including causes of decline and innovative solutions for revitalizing shrinking cities.
Contributors provide a wide range of perspectives on governance, greening, right-sizing, and regrowth in European and US cities. Chapters explore economic prosperity, livability, social stability, and innovation in cities dealing with persistent population decline and urban vacancy. One chapter explores temporary strategies for urban vacancy through the CUDC’s on-going Pop Up City initiative.
The Handbook is geared toward students and faculty in human geography, urban planning, and urban design. A wide range of case studies also makes this a vital read for planning practitioners and community activists.
Volunteers Needed for Community Conversation on Veterans Memorial Bridge
Photo: Steve Wagner
The CUDC is looking for volunteers to assist with community engagement for the streetcar level of the Veterans Memorial Bridge (aka Detroit-Superior Bridge) in Downtown Cleveland.
The streetcar level of the bridge is one of Cleveland great, undiscovered treasures. Streetcar service was discontinued in the 1950s. Cuyahoga County and Kent State’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative are working to transform the space into a bike/pedestrian connection and public space.
For more information about the bridge: www.veteransmemorialbridge.org
We're looking for volunteers to help to facilitate a community conversation about the future of the bridge on Friday, June 23 from 4:30-8:30 pm. No experience necessary, but you will need to complete a 30 minute orientation and training session with the CUDC over Zoom prior to June 23.
Volunteers will:
Facilitate table conversations in an outdoor, picnic setting with 6-8 community members. Over the course of the evening, you will be talking with multiple groups of people as they arrive for dinner and self-guided tours of the bridge.
Take notes capturing key points of these conversations.
Share your notes and observations with the CUDC after the event.
Volunteers will receive a $50 gift card, a bridge t-shirt, and dinner on June 23.
Questions? Please contact the CUDC cudc@kent.edu or 216.357.3426.
WE’RE HIRING - Senior Urban Designer
The CUDC is seeking a full-time Senior Urban Designer with broad multi-disciplinary design experience, an interest in urban design education, and a commitment to public involvement in the design process.As a Senior Urban Designer, you will be involved in all aspects of the CUDC’s operations, working closely with the director in initiating new programs, advancing the mission and activities of the organization, leading design projects, and developing proposals for research grants and technical service contracts. Depending on interests and qualifications, the Senior Urban Designer may also contribute to design studios and/or seminars of Kent State’s Graduate Programs.Eligible applicants will have an advanced degree in Urban Design, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, or Planning. Minimum requirement of 5 (five) or more years of experience in Urban Design or related fields. In addition to Excellent design, graphic, and written communication skills, public speaking experience, knowledge of advanced computer applications, and a record of successful grant writing and fundraising experience. For more information about the position, visit our careers page.Town Hall Gathering
Graphic Design: The Normal Studio
SPACES Gallery and the Case Western Reserve University Department of Art History and Art invite you to attend a community-centered event titled From Lake to Lagoon: Exploring Sustainability in Cleveland & Venice.
Saturday May 6, 2023 from 10-12 am in Room 119 of the Samson Pavilion (Health Education Campus), 9501 Euclid Avenue in Cleveland.
This event is part of the public programming complementing the U.S. Pavilion exhibition Everlasting Plastics curated by SPACES for the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale. Everlasting Plastics investigates plastics as a cultural metaphor, and as “mineable” materials through which artists and viewers can investigate pressing issues of sustainability and environmental justice.
This town hall-style gathering will provide an opportunity to network with other leaders in sustainability, waste policy and practices, and environmental justice. There will be informational tables from community organizations and a catered continental breakfast buffet. Attendees will also hear from Tizziana Baldenebro (Executive Director, SPACES) and Lauren Leving (Curator, MoCA) live from Venice, Italy in an exciting conversation moderated by Joyce Huang, Director for the City of Cleveland’s City Planning Commission.
If you are not able to join in person, you can still participate virtually. The panel discussion will be live-streamed tfrom Venice via webinar.
Post-Graduate Fellowship at the CUDC
Are you a recent graduate with a masters degree in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, or planning? Are you interested in community design and youth education? If so, we have great news for you! Kent State's College of Architecture and Environmental Design's Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC) is offering a one year, full-time paid fellowship.
As a post-graduate fellow, you will be supporting the Making Our Own Space (MOOS) design/build initiative for middle- and high-school students and working on community design projects as part of the CUDC team. You will also develop a fellowship project of your choice. 10% of your work time will be devoted to your fellowship project and a modest budget will be provided.
Eligible applicants will have experience in basic carpentry and fabrication, and excellent drafting/sketching and written communication skills. You must also have completed a graduate program in architecture, urban design, landscape architecture or planning in 2021, 2022 or 2023.
For the full job description and application instructions, please visit the Kent State Human Resources site. The application deadline is May 29, 2023. For more information, contact the CUDC at cudc@kent.edu or 216.357.3434.
Kent State University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer committed to attaining excellence through the recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce. Women, minorities, veterans, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
Volunteer at Community Greenhouse Partners!
Kent State’s Flashes Give Back Week is a time to make a difference where it matters most on Kent State campuses and in our communities!
Please join on on Saturday, 22 April 2023 from 1-5pm for a volunteer day at Community Greenhouse Partners, 6527 Superior Avenue in Cleveland.
Community Greenhouse Partners is a sustainable urban farm that applies ecological design principles and engages community participation to grow wholesome food year-round that is provided at a low cost to the neighborhood, improving personal health while generating training, mentoring and employment opportunities.
Volunteers will assist with covering beds to prevent weeds, moving extra equipment, flattening areas for planting, clearing the forest garden and moving garbage to the front street and to the garbage room. Conditions are rugged. Work gloves and closed-toe shoes are essential.
If you sign up by Friday, March 17, you’ll receive a free Flashes Give Back Week T-shirt!
What next?! with Out of Architecture
Join us at noon on April 7, 2023 for What next?! With Out of Architecture
This workshop is part of the spring program series at the CUDC, sponsored by Kent State’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design. The workshop will be a virtual event on Zoom with an in-person audience at the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative. 1309 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland.
The workshop will explore how to design your career. We will be discussing job hunting tools and techniques, best practices, as well as providing resume and portfolio advice. We will also be looking at pathways both in, out, and adjacent to the architectural profession. This event will provide valuable insights and guidance to help you chart your course towards success.
Out of Architecture is the career consulting firm that helps you leverage the full value of your design education, in any field. The firm was started by two Harvard-educated professionals, Erin Pellegrino and Jake Rudin, who were interested in exploring the value of their skills both in and out of the architectural profession.
Erin is a Visiting Lecturer in Architecture at Cornell University with a focus in Professional Practice. Her studio, Matter., established in 2015 , has focused on small-scale interventions and a process-driven design methodology at various scales. Through her work, she seeks to uncover, build upon, and create relationships through product, furniture and architectural design. She also consults with early technology and design start-up companies for tech accelerators in the New York City area.
Jake works as a member of the Adidas Advanced Creation Technologies team - fabricating, designing, digitizing, model making, and exploring all aspects of footwear. As a designer, he has spent time working around the world for firms including Massimiliano Fuksas Architects, ZGF, and the Shenzhen Institute of Building Research. He has taught extensively in architecture and design fields at universities including Harvard, Cornell, Northeastern, and Portland State University where he currently teaches Visual Communications in the School of Architecture.
Spring Lecture Series Presents - Matthew Feinberg, Theater, Politics, and the Right to the City in Contemporary Spain
Join us Friday, February 24th from 12 -1 PM for a brown bag lecture at the CUDC featuring Matthew Feinberg.
An in-person event at the CUDC with Zoom Livestream
Poised at the intersection of theater studies and cultural geography, this talk sketches the physical and imaginary contours of one of Madrid’s most iconic neighborhoods: Lavapiés. A diverse, multicultural, and rapidly changing neighborhood, it has long been the locus of resistance movements and also of cultural flourishing. Feinberg will illustrate how the neighborhood’s conflicts over gentrification, its unique role as both a site and subject of Madrid’s theater tradition, and its history of influential squatted social centers reveal much about the key economic, social, and cultural dynamics that have shaped cities in the early twenty-first century.
Free and open to the public. Light snacks provided.
From the Theater to the Plaza can be purchased here. Use code MQSP (good until 31 August 2023) for 30% off.
Friday, February 24, 2023
Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative
1309 Euclid Ave. Ste. 200
Cleveland, OH 44115
Spring Lecture Series Presents - Sai Sinbondit, Design for Displacement
Join us Friday, February 17th from 12 -1 PM for a brown bag lecture at the CUDC featuring Sai Sinbondit.
An in-person event at the CUDC with Zoom Livestream
The terms displacement, migration, and homelessness are clearly defined, but in reality, the boundaries and similarities of the human struggles between them are blurred. In this lecture, Sai Sinbondit will be sharing the evolution of his practice I_You Design Lab and several projects that focus on addressing the fundamental needs and the betterment of people who have been displaced. Sai’s work leverages research, collaboration, design, and mindful construction to create meaningful and equitable built environments.
I_You Design Lab is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit design and architecture collective dedicated to developing and supporting meaningful and sustainable solutions that help lift the quality of life at every scale and level for people who have been displaced.
Free and open to the public. Light snacks provided.
Friday, February 17, 2023
Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative
1309 Euclid Ave. Ste. 200
Cleveland, OH 44115
Spring Lecture Series Presents - Andrew Economos Miller, Refuse//Repose
Join us Friday, February 10th from 12 -1 PM for a lecture at the CUDC featuring Andrew Economos Miller. His lecture, "Refuse//Repose," will lay the theoretical groundwork for the upcoming exhibition of the same title at the Kent State College of Architecture and Environmental Design. The talk will sift through a pile of reference, found material, and theoretical propositions that deal with architecture's contemporary organization of labor and its relationship to various natures and larger social and economic systems. The talk will be organized around the tripartite division of "Labor, Waste, and Action," in order to deal with its broad themes. It will also work as an in-progress framework that encourages conversation with the audience.
Free and open to the public. Lunch will be served.
Friday, February 10, 2023
Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative
1309 Euclid Ave. Ste. 200
Cleveland, OH 44115
Urban Histories in Practice
Jan 27 from noon-1pm - Book Release Event - Urban Histories in Practice: Morphologies and Memory
Panel discussion with editor Steven Rugare and contributors Gary Sampson, Stephanie Ryberg-Webster, and Jeffrey Kruth. In-person event at the CUDC. Free refreshments. Books available for purchase through Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Use the code URBAN25 for a 25% discount.
The new book, Urban Histories in Practice: Morphologies and Memory brings together ideas about the material and social transformation of cities by asking, “what is the relationship between history, memory, and the contemporary city?” The urgency of this question grows in the contexts of rapid urbanization in the Global South and urban decline in the deindustrializing areas of the Global North. Within these spaces, multiple disciplines shape our capacity to know the contemporary city. The panel discussion will explore critical and creative approaches regarding how these disciplines might shape this process, ultimately making it more equitable and just.