2019 Western Places/Western Spaces Conference Designing for the Future: Building Enduring Value

The Rocky Mountain West is characterized as much by its vibrant and diverse communities as by its sweeping plains and rugged mountains. The annual Western Places/Western Spaces conference explores the social and development issues facing communities—from large cities to small towns—as well as concerns about managing and preserving our natural heritage.

2019 Western Places/Western Spaces Conference
Designing for the Future: Building Enduring Value

Imagine your ideal community. What makes a place of enduring value? Does it preserve and appreciate its local history or is it a high-tech, future-oriented, master-planned development? Is it dense, urban, walkable, and transit-oriented or is it rural in nature, producing food, providing habitat, or protecting our natural heritage? Is it welcoming to all, regardless of income, ethnicity, ability, or age? Is it accessible, easy to navigate, and comfortable? Is it resilient and sustainable, able to cushion the impacts of climate change and reduce our impacts on the environment? And what is the role of art and beauty in creating places of enduring value? How important is it to create spaces that inspire awe, that promote civic engagement, that provide a respite, or that encourage recreation?

As economic recovery has spread across the West, the demands of rapid growth threaten to undermine our ability to plan for and design places of lasting value. And yet, good design ensures that what we build works for the communities now and into the future. High quality design can transform a mundane block of apartments into a vibrant community; it can help revitalize a struggling Main Street; and it can promote sustainability by ensuring that our investments are durable.

For RMLUI’s 28th Western Places/Western Spaces conference, we will be looking at the ways in which the quality of design informs and shapes our communities. What works and what doesn’t? How are small towns using design to encourage growth and economic opportunities? How are cities ensuring that their focus on affordability doesn’t come at the expense of quality infrastructure? How are suburban areas re-designing spaces to meet changing market demands amid a retail revolution? How are regions using design to ensure that communities build on their diversity, leverage their collective resources, improve their connectivity, and preserve their natural assets? What design disasters should we learn from and avoid in the future? And what tools can we use to promote more thoughtful, more effective, and more beautiful design?

Join us March 7 & 8, 2019, as we explore these themes and more at the Western Places/Western Spaces — Designing for the Future: Building Enduring Value.

Questions?
Please contact us:
Email: rmlui@law.du.edu
Phone: 303-871-6319

Registration coming soon at https://www.law.du.edu/rmlui/conference