Thousands of designers, design students, and design-savvy people have experienced our thought-provoking and creativity-boosting programming. This collaborative experience offers opportunities to interact with all areas of design, including architecture, graphics, interiors, products, fashion, landscape architecture, planning, and urban environments.
Madame Architect is an online magazine, founded in 2018, celebrating the extraordinary women that shape our world, a magazine designed to break the architect’s mold and show young women entering the industry the myriad choices they have in crafting a dynamic, meaningful, and interesting career.
Don’t miss hearing from Madame Architect’s founder and editor-in-chief, Julia Gamolina, as she presents a few case studies of multifaceted careers that are possible in this industry and beyond.
Join us on Friday, April 14, from 5:30pm–8:30pm and tour around several Kansas City Design firms that are opening their doors for the evening. This is your chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at some of the coolest creative studios in the Crossroads. Grab a friend and join the fun!
Made in Manhattan showcases outstanding, recent student work and initiatives in interior architecture, furniture design, and industrial design from the Department of Interior Architecture & Industrial Design at Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS. The exhibition, hosted at the Crossroads Hotel, will be anchored by Open Studio Night on Friday, April 14th. The opening will serve as a forum to engage the Kansas City design industry, alumni, and the academy in dialogues about design across scales and disciplines.
NOMA KC's Advocacy Committee is hosting Session XIX of their popular Coffee Talk Series during KC Design Week. Their discussion will focus on workplace diversity. Specifically, attendees will try to unearth the root cause of key workplace issues and explore whether or not diversity is indeed the right response to them.
Beacon Hill. Westwood. Brookside. Leawood. Explore the Kansas City Metro like never before during KC Design Week’s Homes by Architects Tour. See five homes built or renovated by local architects and learn about their unique details from the people that designed them.
For years, local designer Tad Carpenter has engaged in a weekly passion project: Sunday Suns. Join Tad as he discusses the inspiration and meaning behind his practice (or “play” as he refers to it) and leads participants through a hands-on exercise in creating their own suns. Basic materials will be provided, but feel free to bring your own unique paper, mark-making supplies, etc.
For over 30 years Mahogany has been committed to connecting, celebrating, and uplifting Black people by honoring what’s unique about Black culture. Whether it’s developing a robust online community, creating an empowering card line, or promoting black-owned businesses, Hallmark’s Mahogany team has set a prime example of what corporate social responsibility looks like. Come hear from Mahogany’s key players about the development and prosperity of this incredible brand.
Space is a volumetric measure. For most of us, it is also a tacit quality of our physical experience. The early industrial ethos did not consider people in space any differently than machinery in space. We now recognize its power, and importance in creating humanizing solutions. Join us as Bill Bennie and Jeremy Zeitz of Steelcase share how we learn about space and how that informs our product development.
Join us for a panel discussion with a handful of the women who have played a major role in designing the Kansas City Current Stadium, the first professional women’s soccer stadium in the world. These women have helped not only design and build this stadium, but to make an impact with this historic team. We will be discussing the process, from inception, to branding, the design and building challenges of the stadium, and finally, what it’s like to be a woman in typically male dominated industries.
Tap into what’s behind the branding created for Vine Street Brewing, Kansas City’s first black owned brewery. Enjoy a flight of beer while Matt Wegerer, from Whiskey Design, discusses how he worked with Kemet Coleman, from Vine Street Brewing, to find inspiration in music and flavor to create the brand.
Be there when imaginations soar and career ambitions get sparked for girls in middle school and high school! Girl Scout Design Challenge is a mentorship program for 6th-12th grade Girl Scouts that pairs them with female design professionals to learn about a variety of design professions.
This event is the culmination of a 4-month experience, and teams of Girl Scouts and their mentors will reveal their design concepts and share their vision for Camp Tongawood, a Girl Scout camp in Tonganoxie, KS.
In nearly every field, experts are increasingly using data to inform important decisions made in their day-to day work. During this panel, we will discuss the importance of data driven design as it relates to sustainability and our built environment and hear from leading experts in Architecture, Planning, and Data Analysis about how they use data and its broader impact on the future of design.
Spend the evening ringing in spring and exploring elements of design with stunning flowers with a hands-on floral arrangement workshop led by Daylight Flora. Each attendee will leave the workshop with their own unique, fresh, flower arrangement and vase. Learn design tips and tricks for creating arrangements for friends, family, clients or your own enjoyment.
Join AIGA KC at our Heroes & Allies pop-up shop that will feature comic book artists of color and LGBTQIA backgrounds and will provide a space to celebrate the diversity in comics book and other graphic arts during one of the biggest weeks for the KC design community.
Kansas City has long awaited the opening of its new airport. KCDW’s morning panel discussion will feature the designers instrumental in bringing various design disciplines of the new KCI airport together. Hear the behind-the-scenes challenges designers faced, and how the elements were synthesized for the new airport design.
Specific Ideas, a graphic design studio and publishing house run by Adam Swift Lucas in the West Bottoms, will host a play-based, collaborative Risograph printing workshop. Participants will learn the basics of Riso printing through the creation of limited edition two-color prints, featuring expressive image-and-text pairings.
Join us for a series of short talks from design and UX professionals about the future of the industry. We'll cover tools, trends, and emerging technologies alongside developing collaboration and design culture with leaders in the local UX community. Speakers include Pamela Porto (Director of Design, Crema), Kelly Furlong (Brand Activation Director, Populous), and Joel Barr (KC-based UX research strategist).
Optional networking happy hour afterwards at Pizza 51.
Design has long been focused on accessibility in the traditional sense, addressing only physical barriers and following ADA guidelines. The future is moving toward inclusive design, a more thoughtful consideration of physical, mental and sensory ability factors being integrated into the built environment. Design for All will explore the leading trends of inclusive design through designers and advocates who together are paving the way for a more inclusive Kansas City and beyond.
Join designer and naturalist, Cydney Ross, for an Earth Day nature walk through the beautiful Bluebell Valley along the Little Blue River and explore how Kansas City’s native plants and landscapes inspire design thinking through sustainable practices and environmental stewardship. This event is LGBTQ+ inclusive and is open to individuals of all backgrounds and experiences.
These exciting, interactive events are a program of Center for Architecture & Design, a group of local professional design organizations which include:
