July 29 (Wednesday) – Economic Development Division – The Athens, Ohio Experiment: Extracting and Implementing Local Design Essence to Increase Economic Competitiveness – Speaker: Kyle Ezell

Athens, Ohio recently adopted The Essence of Athens: A Strategic Design Plan for Economic Enhancement and Community Competitiveness. This community collaboration ‘extracted’ the spirit and personality of the community and encourages architects, landscape architects, and planners to color outside the lines of ordinary design and create things that make people say, “That’s so Athens.” The local government is taking the lead to create Athens-specific infrastructure and leading the charge to use local design as a powerful economic development tool. Learn how your community can use this process to find its own local design.