Washington, D.C., June 05, 2009 - The American Architectural Foundation (AAF) announced today that Story Bellows has been named Director of the Mayors' Institute on City Design (MICD).
Bellows graduated from Colgate University and received a master's degree in City Design and Social Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science. During her studies, she was a coordinator for Urban Age, a series of interdisciplinary conferences supported by the London School of Economics that brought together experts to explore urban issues in global cities.
A native Chicagoan, Bellows currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Urban Land Institute-Chicago where she has led the Young Leaders group for the past two years. Bellows is also a visiting fellow at Archeworks, an alternative design school in Chicago.
Bellows comes to AAF from OWP/P, a three-hundred person Chicago-based architecture and engineering firm. Bellows leads the research group at OWP/P that develops high- and low-tech tools to address social, economic and environmental concerns through integrated design processes and solutions.
While at OWP/P Bellows has been a leader in the development of the OWP/P Open Hand Studio, a program that offers pro-bono assistance to improve the quality of the built environment, and OWP/P Engage, a group focused on increasing the firm's exposure to and engagement with Chicago's design community.
"Story's contribution to OWP/P and the Chicago design community as a whole demonstrates her ability to take on complex issues and make a difference in how we approach urban design," said John Syvertsen, president of OWP/P. "As the new Director of the Mayors' Institute on City Design, she will now bring her expertise to cities all around the nation."
"I have worked with Story for several years and know first-hand the skills, knowledge and passion she will bring to the Mayors' Institute," said Ronald E. Bogle, president and CEO of AAF. "From an extraordinary and competitive field of 186 applicants, Story has emerged as the candidate who can work to move MICD to a higher level of impact as we work to support Mayors in creating more livable cities."
"I look forward to working with our country's top mayors and finest designers to explore ways the built environment can enhance and revitalize American cities," said Ms. Bellows. "The Mayors' Institute is one of the most significant public design programs in the country, and I am honored to have been selected by AAF to guide its success."
"The Mayors' Institute on City Design is a premier national program in helping address challenges in America's urban communities," said Maurice Cox, the National Endowment for the Arts Director of Design. "We are excited with the selection of Story as the new Director of MICD and look forward to continuing to build this great program in partnership with the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the American Architectural Foundation."
Created in 1986, the Mayors' Institute on City Design is a program dedicated to improving the design and livability of America's cities through the efforts of their chief elected leaders, their mayors. The program is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, and administered by the American Architectural Foundation in partnership with the NEA and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Over the Institute's 23-year history, more than 750 mayors and 550 design professionals have participated in a series of two and one-half day long symposiums on city design organized around presentations and roundtable discussions. The Institute has also been recognized with a number of awards, including a Presidential Award for Design Excellence in 2000, a Progressive Architecture award from Architecture magazine in 1997, and an Institute Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1992.
The American Architectural Foundation, a non-profit educational organization, advances the vision of a society that participates in shaping its environment through an understanding of the power of architecture to elevate and enrich the human experience. The Foundation's Great Schools by Design and Mayors' Institute on City Design are examples of this vision. The organization is located in The Octagon, a National Historic Landmark and the oldest museum in the U.S. devoted to architecture and design. For more information, visit www.archfoundation.org
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