In January 2021, the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) awarded the Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) with the 2021 LAF Founders’ Award, the highest honor it bestows on organizations. This award recognizes “a firm, agency, or organization that demonstrates a significant commitment to preserving, improving, or enhancing landscapes over a sustained period of time.”
“MICD has had a longstanding and consistent impact through the tangible improvements that have materialized through its workshops. The initiative reveals overlooked possibilities of public space to city officials while demonstrating the value of landscape architecture.”
— LAF Medal and Founders’ Award Committee
MICD Executive Director Trinity Simons accepted the award on behalf of the Mayors’ Institute in a virtual ceremony on April 8, 2021, alongside Karen Phillips, FASLA, who accepted the LAF Medal. Watch the 2021 LAF Medal and Founders’ Award ceremony, along with a special tribute video by distinguished landscape architects, below.
Tribute Video: Mayors’ Institute on City Design
Featuring Mary Margaret Jones, FASLA; Mia Lehrer, FASLA; and Laurie Olin, FASLA
2021 LAF Medal and Founders’ Award: Full Ceremony
Since 1986, the Mayors’ Institute has helped transform communities through design by preparing mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities. MICD achieves its mission by organizing technical assistance workshops where mayors engage leading design and development experts to find solutions to the most critical planning and design challenges facing their cities. In 2020, MICD pivoted to offer virtual learning opportunities, one-on-one design assistance, a fellowship on racial justice and the built environment, and region-specific offerings with partner institutions.
On behalf of the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, MICD thanks LAF for this recognition of 35 years of the Mayors’ Institute.