Reenergizing the City: PlanScapeArch Conference 2024

By 2060 the majority of the global population will live in the urban realm. Climate action has become a critical imperative and communities are demanding more inclusive design processes and better solutions from our leaders. How can we address the unique changes caused by these twin evolutions? This year’s joint conference explores multiple perspectives and engages local and global thought-leaders to reframe the conversation from identifying current challenges to exploring examples of how integrated planning and design could bring resolution. Our three professions share an ethos that promotes sustainability, resilience, and public access. RE-ENERGIZING THE CITY will bring together architects, landscape architects, planners, government officials, and other professions to examine new and necessary expectations placed upon our built and natural environment, redefine how our professions can best respond to these new expectations, and work to redefine the city as one that works for all. Featuring four panel discussions and one keynote, RE-ENERGIZING THE CITY will facilitate a dynamic, forward-looking series of discussions designed to examine how our multi-disciplinary processes are evolving to meet the current and future challenges of the urban realm.

Keynote Speakers:
Iain Macdonald, Director, INSTANCE BV Architecture + Technologies
Elijah Hutchinson, Executive Director, Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, City of New York

Moderators:
Session One: Jee Mee Kim-Diaz, City Executive, NYC Region/Vice President, Arcadis
Session Two: Nette Compton, President and CEO, Mill River Park Collaborative
Session Three: Kaja Kühl, Dipl.Ing, AICP, Principal, youarethecity research & urban design
Session Four: Sarah Williams, Director, MIT Civic Data Design Lab and Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism

Program Schedule
8:30–9:00 am: Check in with coffee and bagels
9:00–9:10 am: Opening remarks
9:15–9:45 am: Keynote: Iain Macdonald
9:45–11:00 am: Session One: Infrastructure of Future. This session explores innovative approaches and advancements shaping our future city.
11:00-11:15 am: Break
11:15 am–12:30 pm:  Session Two: Energy and Living Matter. This discussion explores the dynamic relationship between energy and living organisms, examining how energy influences biological processes and sustains life.
12:30–1:30 pm: Lunch
1:30–2:45 pm: Session Three: Whole Life Cycle Approaches to Designing the Built Environment. This session will present a cross-disciplinary collaborative approach – discussing legislation, best practices and design build methods – to advance whole life cycle carbon reduction of the built environment.
2:45–3:00 pm: Break
3:00–4:15 pm: Session Tour: The Digital Frontier in Design Practices. Explores the possibilities in the digital world to help designers engage in clean energy and sustainability initiatives.
4:30–5:00 pm: Closing Keynote: Elijah Hutchinson – Mayor’s Office
5:00 pm: Closing remarks
5:15 pm: Reception

Registration opens August 21. Early Bird Pricing: August 21 – September 9.