Kansas City Design Week 2022

Grab a coffee and a friend to take a self-guided tour of eye-catching window displays in the greater Kansas City area.

What does it take to transform a 112-year-old home into a 21st-century museum of Kansas City history and cultural heritage? Come experience the newly restored, renovated, and reopened Corinthian Hall. Discover how architects and designers brought back a gem from Kansas City’s past and how they plan to renovate the rest of the property. Light appetizers and beverages will be available with your General Admission ticket. VIP ticket holders will have a private experience creating two craft cocktails with Nicolas Mermet from Westport Cafe.

Westport Commons Farm aims to provide an abundance of fresh, nutritious, locally grown food to the surrounding neighborhoods and the native landscaping works to address stormwater management through deep roots and intentional design.

Come explore the grounds of Westport Commons to learn about best practices and the integration of design as Ami Freeberg of Cultivate KC and Adam Wiechman of BNIM dig into the unique aspects and challenges of urban farm planning and landscape design. 

KCDW is offering participants the opportunity to join Cultivate KC for spring chores at the Westport Commons Farm as part of their Earth Day Day of Service. Parts of the field need sprucing up – spreading mulch, reestablishing pathways, preparing beds for planting, and generally staying on top of weeding. Large tools will be provided by Cultivate KC and it is encouraged to bring your own gloves and dress to be working in the field.

Mikah’s story will stay with you. Embarking on a world record road trip to every National Park Service site broke more than just mileage barriers. The journey helped revolutionize LGBTQ-inclusive marketing in the outdoors recreation industry, plus the design of outside products of past, present, and future. Come learn more about how to design your own life, before someone else designs it for you.

Join KCDW for a panel discussion on inclusive play and playground design with Variety KC, a non-profit that provides children with developmental disabilities opportunities for activity and inclusion. Explore the world of inclusive play at the KC Zoo Inclusive Playground to learn first hand how principles of inclusion can be applied to landscape and design.

Brookside. The Plaza. Prairie Village. Lenexa. Explore the Kansas City Metro like never before during KC Design Week’s Homes by Architects Tour. See four homes built or renovated by local architects and learn about their unique details from the people that designed them.

Not every historic building is an Art Deco skyscraper or Victorian home. More and more mid-century Modern, Brutalist, and Postmodern buildings are being designated as historic, recognizing their architectural and cultural importance. Elizabeth Rosin of Rosin Preservation will discuss the unique design challenges and creative solutions that arise when renovating Modern buildings.  Then, tour the recently renovated, National Register-listed Hy-Vee Arena with Foutch Architecture and Development LLC.

What is the role of white individuals in a primarily white industry? What is the difference between intent vs. impact? What are micro and macroaggressions? The goal is to leave this class with a clear understanding of the ongoing work we must do individually and as an organization to be effective allies to BIPOC.

Join us for a collaborative event hosted by KC Design Week and KC Incremental Development Alliance, featuring four design-focused small-scale developers working in the historic neighborhoods of Kansas City.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Dr. Gary Morsch saw the need for a volunteer response team. Knowing the pandemic wouldn't last forever, Dr. Morsch created COVID Care Force with the intention of transitioning to a global volunteer organization as the pandemic slowed. Learn how the team has dealt with such things as COVID-19 burnout, information overload, and a lack of volunteers as the pandemic continues into its third year.

Ann Willoughby, an AIGA medalist and the founder of Kansas City’s Willoughby Design, shares nearly 5 decades of stories, images, and sage advice from the legendary designer, Milton Glaser. 

Examine how a unique collaboration between Mattie Rhodes Center, the non-profit construction training organization Emerging Builders, and Kansas State University’s Net Positive Studio is building thoughtfully designed, healthy, energy efficient, and affordable homes in a neighborhood that hasn’t seen new home construction for decades. Attendees to the event will learn about the story, design, construction approach, and educational mission behind the past and current builds, including their context within a vibrant urban neighborhood.

The world of esports is evolving right before our eyes. Once operating in the margins of mainstream media, it adds high-profile events, evangelists, and investors by the day. What it lacks is more world-class spaces for gamers to physically gather on a grand scale. Whether retrofitting current facilities or building new developments from the ground up, design in esports arenas is key.

As designers and creatives, we strive to build digital work that is useful, helpful, beautiful, and that makes a lasting impact. The biggest barrier to being effective in these efforts is accessibility. We design for the newest machines and mobile devices, assuming everyone has access to fast and inexpensive data and internet connections. The reality is, most people do not. Creative technologist and designer Michael Dolan will explain how we as designers rise to meet this challenge.

The Missouri Innovation Campus is one of the many schools reinventing how to not only better prepare students for their careers, but to give them a massive head start. Join us on a tour of their space to learn about their nationally recognized innovative curriculum, and how they partnered with Gould Evans to create unique learning spaces to support it.

When many of us think of empathy, we imagine hearts, hugs, and pinched eyebrows of concern. Scratch all of that. Emotional experiences of empathy may feel comforting in a tough moment, but unless that feeling is followed by insightful, intentional action, what good is it?

This talk introduces an alternative definition of empathy: a perspective-taking skill rather than an emotional experience of compassion.

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.

Most of us weren’t trained to listen; we were taught to nod and repeat. We parroted our parents and partners with the best of intentions, then learned the hard way that it wasn’t enough to create understanding. 

We see the same mistakes between brands and consumers. Well-meaning companies cut and paste fragments of culture in an effort to connect with audiences, but ultimately miss the memo on what they mean and where they fit in the ecosystem of shared experiences.

This workshop is a must for researchers, strategists, people managers, producers, marketers, collaborators, and communicators of all kinds. Empathic listening is a rational, accessible practice for everyone. 

The Art of tattooing is an ancient and primal art form. Between the 18th and 20th centuries, tattoos were a symbol of rebellion that birthed its own subcultures – from tribes to pirates, soldiers and sailors, to criminals and outcasts, musicians and models; all have found a connection to the art form.

In the modern era tattoos are much more popular than they have been in the past evolving from distinct counter culture participation. Tattoos provide a personal form of expression and/or the desire to collect your own gallery of art from various tattoo artists. As the industry grows new styles are beginning to emerge; however, the popularity and value of the traditional tattoo styling has not subsided. Hyper-realism, watercolor and simple blackwork are just a few examples of the art styles that claim the top spot for the most popular. Modern technology has had an influence on what types of tattoos, and the method of administering the tattoos are possible. Mark Galloway (Windhorse Tattoo), Sarah Anderson (The Green Gazelle), Bob Bitner (Catalyst Arts Collective) and Jessie Hopeless(Jessie Hopeless Tattoo), our esteemed panelists of artists, will talk us through what the art form means to them,  its influence on their life, their variety of processes, and where they see the Art of Tattooing is going in the future. 

The Urban Lumber Showcase will be an open show (non-juried, no awards) that will feature local makers’ design efforts with wood harvested from our region. Anyone can bring in objects made from local wood for display. 

This event is about design and a focus on the reuse/better use of our local resources.