Exhibit Columbus is a feature program of Landmark Columbus Foundation. Over a two-year cycle of programming, the program uses the context of Columbus to convene conversations around innovative ideas and then commissions site-responsive installations to create a free, public exhibition that demonstrates the power of art and architecture to make cities better places to live for everyone.
Community Kickoff
Curatorial Partners take a tour of significant sites downtown during the 2024 Community Kickoff.
The Community Kickoff is a public event that launches each new Exhibit Columbus cycle. Through presentations, conversations, and community gatherings, the Kickoff shares research and ideas shaping the future of downtown Columbus and introduces the curatorial team to the community. The event brings together designers, local leaders, and residents to explore strategies for vibrant, resilient public spaces and to begin building a shared vision for how art, architecture, and community can evolve together.
Symposium
2017 Symposium inside the sanctuary at First Christian Church.
The Symposium places the modern legacy of Columbus into a global perspective through presentations and conversations between professionals and community leaders while serving as inspiration for and introduction to participants making work in the exhibition. It acts as a convenor of people and ideas around Columbus and its cultural heritage.
Design Presentations
MASS Design Group presents their installation concept presentation on stage at The Commons at the 2018 Design Presentations.
The Design Presentations build excitement for the Exhibition and provide an opportunity for our community to experience the design process first-hand. In an open and public format, participants present their installation concepts for the upcoming exhibition and receive community feedback.
Exhibition
Dream the Combine, Columbus Columbia Colombo Colón, 2020–21 J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Recipient.
The Exhibition features site-responsive installations created by participants (architects, designers, academics, artists, and communication designers). They create experiences that use Columbus’ heritage as inspiration and context, while highlighting the role that a visionary community plays in growing a vibrant, sustainable, and equitable city.
Past Exhibitions
2016–17 Inaugural
J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Recipients
studio:indigenous
Wiikiaami
Milwaukee
IKD
Conversation Plinth
Boston
Oyler Wu Collaborative
The Exchange
Los Angeles
Plan B Architecture & Urbanism
Anything can happen in the woods
New Haven
Aranda/Lasch
Another Circle
Tucson and New York
Washington Street Installations
Formafantasma
Window to Columbus
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Pettersen & Hein
PAUSE
Copenhagen, Denmark
Productora
Columbus Circles
Mexico City, Mexico
Cody Hoyt
Theoretical Foyer
Brooklyn
Snarkitecture
Playhouse
New York
University Installations
Ball State University College of Architecture and Planning
49262
Muncie
The Ohio State University
Inscribed
Columbus, Ohio
University of Cincinnati
Alchemy
Cincinnati
Indiana University
Synergia
Columbus
University of Kentucky
Indelible Pattern(s)
Louisville
University of Michigan
Cloud / Bank
Ann Arbor
High School Design Team
Between the Threads
Environmental Design and Wayfinding
Thirst
Chicago
2018–19 Cycle
Good Design and the Community
For inspiration, Exhibit Columbus looked to the 1986 exhibition, Good Design and the Community: Columbus, Indiana, created when Columbus business leader and philanthropist J. Irwin Miller became the first person inducted into the National Building Museum Hall of Fame in Washington. Mr. Miller chose to emphasize the community’s process and involvement in building, rather than the architecture itself, as a source of his hometown pride:
“Architecture is something you can see. You cannot see a spirit or a temperament or a character, though, and there’s an invisible part of this community of which I am very proud because, in a democracy, I think that the process is more important than the product.”
Elaborating on the connection between the tangible and intangible culture that Mr. Miller described, this cycle’s exhibition explores the idea of “good design in the community,” and what it means today.
J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Recipients
Agency Landscape + Planning
XX
Boston
Bryony Roberts Studio
Soft Civic
New York
Frida Escobedo Studio
Untitled
Mexico City, Mexico
MASS Design Group
Corn/Meal
Boston
SO—IL
Into the Hedge
New York
Washington Street Civic Projects
PienZa Sostenible
Las Abejas
Mexico City, Mexico
BORDERLESS STUDIO
Love Letter to The Crump
Chicago and San Antonio
Extrapolation Factory
What If Columbus
New York
LA-Más
Thank U, Next
Los Angeles
People for Urban Progress
Jungle Subtraction
Indianapolis
University Design Research Fellows
Viola Ago and Hans Tursack
Understorey
The Ohio State University
and MIT
Cambridge and Columbus
Sean Ahlquist
Playscape
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor
Christopher Battaglia
DE|stress
Ball State University
Muncie
Marshall Prado
UTK Filament Tower
University of Tennessee
Knoxville
Sean Lally and Matthew Wizinsky
The Long Now
University of Illinois at Chicago and University of Cincinnati
Chicago and Cincinnati
Daniel Luis Martinez and Etien Santiago
Entry Portal
Indiana University
Columbus
High School Design Team
DENCITY
Environmental Design and Wayfinding
Thirst
Chicago
2020–21 Cycle
New Middles: From Main Street to Megalopolis, What is the Future of Our Middle City?
The third cycle of Exhibit Columbus explores the future of the center of the United States and the regions connected by the Mississippi Watershed. New Middles speculates on the heartland, an ecology stretching beyond political borders—from North to South—from the Canadian Border to the Gulf, and from East to West—from Appalachia to the plains.
Embracing a long timeline of cities past, present, and future, New Middles builds upon Columbus’ legacy as a laboratory for design as civic investment. In a moment when we most need reflection, creativity, and innovation to envision new ways of being, New Middles considers Columbus a place to destabilize assumptions, and imagine new architectures and landscapes as a way to positively move our cities forward.
J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Recipients
Future Firm
Midnight Palace
Chicago
Dream the Combine
Columbus Columbia Colombo Colón
Minneapolis & Ithaca
Ecosistema Urbano
Cloudroom
Miami & Madrid, Spain
Olalekan Jeyifous
Archival/Revival
Brooklyn
Sam Jacob Studio
Alternative Instruments
London, England
University Design Research Fellowship
Derek Hoeferlin
Tracing Our Mississippi
Washington University St. Louis
St. Louis
Jei Jeeyea Kim with Dorian Bybee
LaWaSo Ground
Indiana University
Columbus
Joyce Hwang
To Middle Species, With Love
University at Buffalo
Buffalo
Natalie Yates
Calibrate
Ball State University
Muncie
Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller
Spectral
Texas Tech University at El Paso
El Paso
Ang Li
Window Dressing
Northeastern University
Boston
Lola Sheppard and Mason White
This Appearance Is _____
University of Waterloo and University of Toronto
Toronto, Canada
High School Design Team
Tunnel Vision
Environmental Design and Wayfinding
Jeremiah Chiu
Los Angeles
Curatorial Fellows
Iker Gil
Chicago
Mimi Zeiger
Los Angeles
2022–23 Cycle
Public by Design
The theme of the fourth cycle of Exhibit Columbus, Public by Design, built on the legacy of Columbus, Indiana to explore how collaborations between communities and designers could revitalize and reimagine historic downtowns as equitable, beautiful, and joyful places. Public by Design served as a platform for many vibrant communities to become connected around the values of inclusivity, care, and generosity. This cycle celebrated creative methods of collaboration that communities and designers could use to grow a sense of belonging and connection in public spaces.
Public by Design represented an opportunity for each of us to play new and transformative roles in shaping a public life that was more connected to public places and public institutions.
J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Recipients
Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO
Designed by the public
Mexico City, Mexico
Practice for Architecture and Urbanism
InterOculus
New York
PORT
THE PLOT PROJECT
Philadelphia and Chicago
Studio Zewde
Echoes of the Hill
Harlem
University Design Research Fellowship
Joseph Altshuler and Zack Morrison
A Carousel for Columbus
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Chicago and Urbana-Champaign
Esteban Garcia Bravo and Maria Clara Morales
PRISMA
Purdue University
West Lafayette
Jessica Colangelo and Charles Sharpless
Ground Rules
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville
“BLDS” Tameka Baba, Forbes Lipschitz, Shelby Doyle, and Halina Steiner
PIPE UP!
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio
Deborah Garcia
RESPONDER
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge
Molly Hunker and Greg Corso
Side Effects
Syracuse University
Syracuse
Katie MacDonald and Kyle Schumann
Sylvan Scrapple
University of Virginia
Charlottesville
High School Design Team
Machi
Communication Design
SIGNALS
Boston
Curatorial Partners
Paola Aguirre
San Antonio/Chicago
Chris Merritt
Indianapolis
Lauren M. Pacheco
Chicago/Gary
Bryony Roberts
Los Angeles
Raymund Ryan
Pittsburgh
Holly Warren
Bloomington
2024–25 Cycle
Yes And
For the fifth cycle of Exhibit Columbus, Yes And invites contributors to explore the legacy of Columbus, Indiana, by adding to the multiple and overlapping lives of buildings and spaces. Originating in improv theater, Yes And is a technique for affirming and building upon an idea to create a shared narrative. It is a participatory call to work from existing material to shape positive change.
Through a cycle of events, Exhibit Columbus will encourage the public to collaborate in the creation of the ongoing performance of the city. Whether we’re recovering architectural remnants, reflecting on cultural legacy, staging a dramatic spectacle, or reimagining public play, Yes And invites everybody to the public spaces of Columbus to expand what forms of togetherness and collaboration are possible.
J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Recipients
Adaptive Operations
Accessing Nostalgia
Chicago
AD—WO
Ellipsis
New York
Studio Barnes
Joy Riding
Miami
Studio Cooke John
Lift
New York
University Design Research Fellowship
Chandler Ahrens, Constance Vale, and Kelley Van Dyck Murphy
Inside Out
Washington University in St. Louis
Sarah Aziz
A View of the World from Indiana
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque
Akima Brackeen
Pool/Side
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Chicago
César Lopez, Jess Myers, Amelyn Ng, and Germán Pallares-Avitia
PUBLIC/SCHOOL/GROUNDS
University of Virginia, Syracuse University, Columbia University, Rhode Island School of Design
Andrew Fu, Aaron Goldstein, and Aleksandr Mergold
The Steel Horsie
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Michael Jefferson and Suzanne Letteri
Apart, Together
Cornell University
Ithaca
Design Education Team
Valence
Advised by Indiana University professor Spencer Steenblik
High School students from Brown, Bartholomew, Jackson, and Decatur Counties in Indiana from the Bartholomew County School Corporation’s C4 Columbus Area Career Connection program, and graduate students from the J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program
STEM
Our Reimagined City
Advised by Davida Harden, Allison Meyer, and Ashley Toler
5th- and 6th-grade elementary students from Bartholomew County School Corporation’s Science Technology Engineering and Math program
Communication Design
Sing-Sing
Motions
Los Angeles
Curatorial Partners
Could Be Design
Chicago
Mila Lipinski
Jackson
Rasul Mowatt
Raleigh
Preservation Futures
Chicago
Too Black
Indianapolis
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