MKSK Design Summit 3: The Power of Collaboration

Our designers and planners gathered in Columbus, Ohio for the third annual MKSK Design Summit workshop to share our work and practice.

The MKSK Design Summit is our annual retreat to celebrate what we uphold as the core value of our firm, the power of collaboration. MKSK, we are focused on solving the pressing issues in our cities and communities. We look to achieve this by focusing on the interaction between people and place and each community’s strengths.

Design Summit 3 brought together our studio teams from our seven metropolitan studios across five states, to enjoy a full day of information exchange, design thinking, and thought leadership. The Summit kicked off with the annual Rally in Our Alley social gathering, shared with our clients and design partners, outside our Columbus studios, which drew a lively crowd to enjoy locally sourced, food and drink.

Design Summit 3 was held at Wolf’s Ridge Brewery in downtown Columbus. The day was filled with sessions presented by members of our design teams on a range of topics, from the power of Environmental Graphic Design (presented by Studio Leader Niels Braam, Maya Hehemann, and Cody Holland) to tell the story and elevate place, to the value of tactical engagement to build investment from within the community, in the visioning process.

The keynote was presented by Keith Bowers, FASLA, PLA, PWS, President, Founder and Southeast Atlantic Bioregion Team Leader of Biohabitats, Inc. Bowers spoke on his team’s work in the fields of conservation planning, ecological restoration, and regenerative design across the country to reconnect communities to their “environmental pasts”, in order to design for resiliency in urban areas and prepare the future health of communities and the planet.   

Principals Eric Lucas, Darren Meyer, Andy Knight and Karen McCoy discuss the message behind the work of our studios.

‘Tactical Strategies for Better Public Outreach’ presented by Planners, Juliana Silveira (left) and Sarah Lilly (right), discussed the power of tactical engagement as part of the Middlebury & Kenmore Neighborhood Plans in Akron, Ohio.

‘Quality of Water, Quality of Life’, on the visioning of the Wabash Riverfront with inviting public spaces for the communities of West Lafayette and Lafayette, Indiana, was presented by Senior Associate, Landscape Architect, Kristen Lucas and Associate, Landscape Architect, Brett Davis.

Associates, Landscape Architects, Tim Rosenthal (left) and Matt Kellogg (right) discussed a study of the Olentangy River corridor which layers connectivity, infrastructure, open space, recreational, cultural, and neighborhood conenctions into a dynamic and walkable greenway.

The days events ended with closing remarks from Principal & CEO Brian Kinzelman, FASLA, AICP, LEED AP. With another successful Design Summit we are refreshed, recharged, and have a renewed commitment to our mission: To strive to author transformational projects to create places that are socially connected, ecologically responsive, and economically sustainable.