Exhibit Columbus, the annual exploration of architecture, art, design, and community, continues to celebrate the design legacy of Columbus, Indiana, with the opening of its second major exhibition. For inspiration, Exhibit Columbus looked to the 1986 exhibition, Good Design and the Community: Columbus, Indiana, created when Columbus business leader and philanthropist J. Irwin Miller became the first person inducted into the National Building Museum Hall of Fame in Washington, DC. Mr. Miller chose to emphasize the community’s process and involvement in building, rather than the architecture itself, as a source of his hometown pride: “Architecture is something you can see. You cannot see a spirit or a temperament or a character, though, and there’s an invisible part of this community of which I am very proud because, in a democracy, I think that the process is more important than the product.” Elaborating on the connection between the tangible and intangible culture that Mr. Miller described, this year’s exhibition explores the idea of “good design in the community,” and what it means today.

J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Winners: Agency Landscape + Planning was formed by landscape architect Gina Ford and planner Brie Hensold to address social equity, cultural vitality, and environmental resilience through design excellence, strategic planning, and community empowerment; Bryony Roberts Studio is an architectural design practice that creates projects in response to complex cultural histories and urban conditions. Founder and principal Bryony Roberts argues for greater exchanges between the fields of architecture, art, and preservation in order to develop new modes of creativity in relation to historical sites; Frida Escobedo Studio is an architecture and design studio based in Mexico City; MASS Design Group is a nonprofit architecture firm that operates with the understanding that all architecture is embedded in a social, cultural, and political context. Led by a team of 11 directors, the firm is based in Boston and Kigali, Rwanda; SO-IL is a future-oriented architectural design firm based in New York led by Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu.

Washington Street Civic Project Leaders: Borderless Studio is an urban design and research consultancy focused on shaping communities through collaborative design and is led by Chicago-based Paola Aguirre; The Extrapolation Factory is a design-based research studio for participatory futures studies led by Chris Woebken and Elliott P. Montgomery; LA-Más is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit urban design organization, led by coexecutive directors Elizabeth Timme and Helen Leung, that helps lower-income and underserved communities shape their own growth; People For Urban Progress (PUP) is an Indianapolis nonprofit that advances good design and civic sustainability by developing products and projects in connectivity, responsible reuse, and making, with founder Michael Bricker as director of public design; PienZa Sostenible is a nonprofit association that promotes the research, study, analysis, implementation, monitoring and coordination on the current situation in Mexico, and is led by architect Carlos Zedillo Velasco.

University Design Research Fellows: Viola Ago and Hans Tursack share an interest in architecture as a visual and material medium; Sean Ahlquist is an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Michigan in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning; Christopher A. Battaglia is the 2018–19 Design Innovation Fellow and assistant teaching professor at Ball State University’s Department of Architecture; Sean Lally and Matt Wizinsky bring complementary insights from their different disciplines—landscape architecture and participatory design—to create work that bridges disciplinary boundaries; Marshall Prado is an assistant professor of structural technology at the University of Tennessee.

Richard McCoy is founding director of Exhibit Columbus, an organization dedicated to caring for and celebrating the world-renowned design heritage of Columbus, Indiana. McCoy is an experienced cultural leader who has a history of creating unique solutions to complex cultural heritage challenges, curating projects in public spaces, and teaching in universities. He has served on a number of non-profit boards and civic committees.

Anne Surak, director of exhibitions, leads the creative vision of Exhibit Columbus, working closely with all of the exhibition participants and community partners to bring the exhibition to life. She is an innovative cultural leader, curator, and art dealer with more than 15 years of experience creating collaboration-based projects and gallery exhibitions.

Hannah Brokenshire, director of communications,is a creative communicator with marketing and events experience in arts and culture, higher education, and government environments. She managed communications during the 2017 exhibition and recently oversaw logistics for the 2018 National Symposium.

Janice Shimizu, associate curator, University Design Research Fellowship,curates the University Design Research Fellowship, working to make sure that the component is beneficial to Exhibit Columbus, universities, and the many students involved in the project. She also teaches design studio and is the graduate director of the Master of Architecture Professional Degree program at Ball State University. Licensed in California and Indiana, she has worked on an array of programs, scales, and conditions. Shimizu is a principal at Shimizu + Coggeshall Architects.

Jonathan Nesci, associate curator, is a valuable resource and connector to many local and regional fabricators and allied designers who helps to bring ideas to fruition. He is a furniture and exhibition designer based in Columbus who works with a variety of producers in the Midwest that use conventional and digital fabrication processes to execute his designs in a myriad of materials and finishes. In 2009, Wallpaper honored Nesci with a Design Award for Best Use Of Material for his Library Bookcase, a wall-mounted shelf in polished aluminum that was recently added to the permanent collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Hadley Fruits, photographer, Fruits has been photographing in Columbus for more than ten years, and has been the dedicated photographer for Exhibit Columbus, helping to shape the look of the project. He is an Indianapolis-based photographer who works with organizations, artists, and designers to incorporate and elevate photographic practice deeper into the creative and collaborative process. Nationally recognized and published, Hadley's work is created with thoughtful intent and utilized to recognize historic endeavors while advancing contemporary engagement.

Founded in 2015, Landmark Columbus’ mission is to care for the design heritage of Columbus while inspiring communities to invest in art, architecture, and design to improve people’s lives and make cities better places to live.