Maurice Cox, planning and development director for City of Detroit, will be the keynote speaker atPlace and Economic Development, which will take place on Monday, August 27 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at historic Clayborn Temple.
“We are pleased to collaborate with other local community partners to bring Maurice Cox to Memphis at a time when our community is beginning to explore new ideas for economic development,” said Community LIFT President Eric Robertson. “We hope that this event will energize people and inspire them to join the conversation about ways that we can be more proactive in bringing economic vitality to neighborhoods while continuing to recruit and retain large companies.”
Maurice Cox is an urban designer, architectural educator, and former mayor of Charlottesville, VA. He also served as associate dean for community engagement at the Tulane University School of Architecture and director of Tulane City Center, a university-affiliated practice that integrates design, urban research, and civic engagement to advance community-driven solutions to difficult problems.
Cox has taught at Syracuse University, the University of Virginia, and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. His experience merging architecture, politics, and design education led to him being named one of “20 Masters of Design” by Fast Company in 2004. He served as design director for the National Endowment of the Arts from 2007-2010, where he led Your Town: The Citizen’s Institute on Rural Design, the Governors’ Institute on Community Design, and the Mayors’ Institute on City Design and oversaw grants to the design community across the United States. In 2013, Cox was named one of the “Most Admired Design Educators in America” in the annual ranking done by DesignIntelligence.
The event is jointly presented by The Kresge Foundation, The National Organization of Minority Architects, Community LIFT, ULI Memphis, University of Memphis Design Collaborative, Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development, Downtown Memphis Commission, BLDG Memphis, Memphis Medical District Collaborative, AIA Memphis, Hyde Family Foundation, and Economic Development Growth Engine for Memphis and Shelby County. Event registration is free and available online at http://buytickets.at/
