For Immediate Release: December 15, 2010
Media Contact: Marketing and Communication Department
Intelligent Cities: Makeshift Metropolis
The National Building Museum Launches Intelligent Cities Public Programming with Lecture by Award-Winning Author Witold Rybczynski
WHO/WHAT
On Monday, January 10, 2010, prize-winning author, professor, and architecture critic Witold Rybczynski discusses his latest book, Makeshift Metropolis: Ideas about Cities. The book explores current concepts about urban planning that evolved from the movements that defined the twentieth century such as City Beautiful, the Garden City, and the seminal ideas of Frank Lloyd Wright and Jane Jacobs. In this presentation, Rybczynski will discuss the history of city planning and consider the kind of cities we want and the kind of cities we need. Rybczynski’s program is the launch event for the Museum’s Intelligent Cities initiative, a multi-year effort that explores how data and information technology can improve the way our cities look, feel, and function.
WHERE
National Building Museum
401 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
(Judiciary Square Metro, Red Line)
$12 Member; $20 Non-members.
FREE for students with valid ID.
Prepaid registration required. Walk-in registration based on availability.
To register visit www.nbm.org or call 202.272.2448.
Complimentary tickets available for press with proper credentials.
WHEN
Monday, January 10, 2010
6:30 – 8:00 pm
Intelligent Cities Lecture
CONTACT
Marketing and Communications Department, 202.272.2448, ext. 3458
NOTE
Intelligent Cities is a National Building Museum project in partnership with TIME, supported by IBM, and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.
INTELLIGENT CITIES: Interview Opportunities on January 10, 2011
The goal of Intelligent Cities’ is to explore how data and information technology impact the built environment. The world is awash in data, yet often this information is hidden in indecipherable spreadsheets or tucked away in federal websites. Intelligent Cities attempts to make this information visible, and more importantly, useful through analysis, public outreach, and the mashing up of different content silos. Through a series of public programs, online polling, and original infographics commissioned by the museum, this initiative will draw the public into a compelling, dynamic conversation about American cities, development, and technology. Intelligent Cities is driven by the concept that informed people make better decisions.
The Museum has invited a prominent group of advisors to help guide Intelligent Cities. They are all leaders in their field, interdisciplinary in their approach, forward-thinking, and represent a broad geographic base within the country. Reporters can arrange interviews with one or more of the advisors on January 10, 2011 by contacting the National Building Museum’s press office.
The following are the members of the Intelligent Cities Advisory Council:
• Ahmed Abukhater, global industry manager, ESRI
• Martin Chavez, executive director, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA
• Peter Corbett, chief executive officer, iStrategy Labs
• Jennifer Evans-Cowley, associate professor and section head, City and Regional Planning, Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture, The Ohio State University; chair, American Planning Association’s Technology Committee
• Howard Frumkin, dean, University of Washington School of Public Health
• Mindy Fullilove, professor of clinical psychiatry and professor of clinical sociomedical sciences; co-director, Community Research Group, New York State Psychiatric Institute and Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
• Jeanne Gang, STUDIO GANG
• Bert Gregory, chief executive officer, Mithun Architects + Design + Planners
• Anita Hairston, senior associate, Transportation Policy, PolicyLink
• Amy Liu / Bruce Katz / Robert Puentes, Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings Institution
• Michelle Moore, federal environmental executive, White House Council on Environmental Quality
• Chris Pyke, vice president, Research, US Green Building Council
• Carlo Ratti, director, SENSEable City Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Witold Rybczynski, Martin & Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism, Professor of Real Estate, University of Pennsylvania
• Bill Saporito, assistant managing editor, TIME Magazine
• Erik Steiner, creative director, Stanford’s Spatial History Project
• Kathy Tholin, CEO, Center for Neighborhood Technologies
• John Tolva, director, Citizenship & Technology, IBM Corporation
• Anthony Townsend, director of technology development, Institute for the Future
• Sarah Williams, director, Spatial Information Design Lab, Columbia University
• Jess Zimbabwe, executive director, Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use, The Urban Land Institute
What is Intelligent Cities?
Information surrounds us—data on how much energy we use in the home, projected traffic congestion, and census reports. But how do we make sense of all this information? The National Building Museum launched Intelligent Cities, a multi-year investigation into how data and technology inform the look, feel, and function of our cities to address these issues with lots of input from the public.
“What makes a city intelligent? You do.”
We invite your readers to answer poll questions about their quality of life related to their home, neighborhood, community, city, and region. The polls are open to everyone at http://go.nbm.org/intelligentcities. Poll results, essays, videos, and other related content are also online. The Museum is asking these questions because it wants the public to think about what drives their decisions about where they live or how they get to work and what intended or unintended consequences those decisions might have.
Goal is Better Decision Making
Through Intelligent Cities, we are encouraging the public to join with experts in bold and provocative thinking on how to make our cities thrive. It is the grassroots input about people’s perceptions of and priorities for the built environment around them that makes Intelligent Cities particularly significant for the National Building Museum. The initiative will produce data, analysis, and ideas on how new technologies are shaping cities and present this information in new and revealing ways. These insights may surprise us and change our perception of the built environment around us, and, perhaps, even our behavior.
Intelligent Cities Scope
Intelligent Cities opened in October 2010 with a six-month national public outreach campaign, which is reaching millions of people through promotional advertisements in TIME and TIME.com. The multi-year initiative will include research and consultation conducted by the Museum and an advisory committee of experts, a public forum in June 2011, and a publication in Fall 2011.
To learn more about Intelligent Cities, read the full press release.
The National Building Museum is America’s leading cultural institution dedicated to advancing the quality of the built environment by educating people about its impact on their lives. Through its exhibitions, educational programs, online content, and publications, the Museum has become a vital forum for the exchange of ideas and information about the world we build for ourselves. Public inquiries: 202.272.2448 or visit www.nbm.org. Connect with us on Twitter: @BuildingMuseum and Facebook.
