Exhibit Columbus

Exhibit Columbus is a program of Landmark Columbus Foundation and an exploration of community, architecture, art, and design relating to Columbus, Indiana, United States. It features the internationally sought after J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize.

After hosting its inaugural symposium, "Foundations and Futures," in the fall of 2016 and inaugural exhibition in the fall of 2017, symposia have occurred in 2018, 2020, 2022 and exhibitions in 2019, 2021, and 2023. Exhibit Columbus has four key components: The Miller Prize, High School Design Team, University Design Research Fellowships, and Communications Design.

The J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize
The Miller Prize was created to honor J. Irwin Miller and his wife Xenia S. Miller, two patrons of architecture and design.

In 2016 ten designers were paired at one of the five sites in a competition to see which team would be selected by a jury for the opportunity to build an installation in conversation with the past while exploring the future of design and fabrication.

In 2018 five studios were selected as Miller Prize winners from a short list. These studios were selected for their commitment to using art and architecture to improve people's lives and make cities better places to live. After the 2019 Design Presentations in January 2019, Wallpaper* declared that the exhibition "promises to celebrate women in architecture," and The Republic Newspaper indicated that the installations would lean heavily on landscape architecture.

2023 Exhibition
The 2023 Exhibition's theme refers to "creating meaningful connections between people and public spaces that they share". The opening weekend for "Public by Design" is August 25 and 26. The fourth cycle of Exhibit Columbus highlights thirteen outdoor installations.

2023 Miller Prize Recipients
The 2023 Exhibition features four J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize recipients.

Joseph Altshuler and Zack Morrison from the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

 * Installation name: "A Carousel for Columbus"

Esteban Garica Bravo and Maria Clara Morales from Purdue University

 * Installation name: "PRISMA"

Jessica Colangelo and Charles Sharpless from the University of Arkansas

 * Installation name: "Ground Rules"

Deborah Garcia from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Architecture

 * Installation name: "RECORDAR"

Molly Hunker and Greg Corso from Syracuse University School of Architecture

 * Installation name: "Side Effects"

Katie MacDonald and Kyle Schumann from the University of Virginia

 * Installation name: "Sylvan Scrapple"

Halina Steiner, Tameka Baba, Shelby Doyle, and Forbes Lipschitz from The Ohio State University Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture and Iowa State University School of Design

 * Installation name: "PIPE UP!"

High School Design Team
==== Trinity Carter, Haniel Cruz, Anushka Damle, Mariana DeLuca, Alexander DePaul, Isabel Garduno, Owen Hebert, Brooke Leslie, Sam Loheide, Nettie Meeks, Max Nash, Judah Nickoll, Bryce Olson, Ashley Perez, Gloria Phillips, Grishma Pitkar, Joycee Redman, Beatriz Santana, Trent Tyree, Vaughan Williams ====
 * Installation name: "MACHI"

Chris Grimley

 * "Signals" Public by Design

2022 Symposium
The 2022 Exhibit Columbus Symposium took place on October 21 and 22 where conversations were held between professionals and community leaders. The 2022 Symposium focused on public events hosted by J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller prize recipients, University Design Research Fellows, High School Design Team, Communication Designer, Curatorial Team, and three keynote presentations.

2021 Exhibition
The 2021 Exhibition's theme "New Middles" refers to

2020 Symposium
The 2020 Exhibit Columbus Symposium took place virtually amid the COVID-19 pandemic from September 15 through October 29. For the 2021 Exhibit Columbus theme, "New Middles", the Symposium explored the question "what is the future of The Middle City?" by engaging with designers, landscape architects, artists, and thinkers. The Symposium thought about the theme "New Middles" through the lens of "four topic areas: Futures and Technologies, Resiliency and Climate Adaptation, Arts and Community, and Indigenous Futures and Radical Thinking".

2019 Exhibition
The 2019 Exhibition participants were announced in the summer of 2018, and participated as speakers in the 2018 National Symposium: Design, Community, and Progressive Preservation. The exhibition opened on August 24 and ran through December 1, 2019.

The exhibition featured 18 site-responsive installations by architects, designers, academics, artists, and graphic designers.

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.

The 2019 exhibition explored the idea of “good design in the community,” and what it means today.

2019 Miller Prize Recipients
The 2019 exhibition featured five J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize recipients:

Washington Street Civic Projects

 * Borderless Studio (Chicago)
 * Extrapolation Factory (New York)
 * LA Más (Los Angeles)
 * People for Urban Progress (Indianapolis)
 * PienZa Sostenible (Mexico City)

University Design Research Fellows
These fellowships were created to showcase current research by leading professors of architecture and design and highlight innovative research that explores ways that architecture and design can improve people's lives and make cities stronger.


 * Viola Ago and Hans Tursack (Ohio State University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
 * Sean Ahlquist (University of Michigan)
 * Christopher Battaglia (Ball State University)
 * Sean Lally and Matthew Wizinsky (University of Illinois at Chicago and University of Cincinnati)
 * Daniel Luis Martinez and Etien Santiago (Indiana University)
 * Marshall Prado (University of Tennessee)

2018 symposium
The 2018 symposium took place September 26 to September 29, and was created in partnership with Docomomo US, American Institute of Architects Indiana and Kentucky, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields. The theme for the symposium was Design, Community, and Progressive Preservation, a title which recognizes the need to look for forward looking preservation plans in the future of cities. The Architect's Newspaper proclaimed that the symposium was "unburdened by the lack of old-school historic preservation and architectural history thought chains, and discussion instead focused on innovation, creativity, and participation over historical facts delivered by academics." Over four days about 1200 attendees experienced sessions in many of the historic buildings throughout Columbus. The symposium culminated with introductory remarks from the 2019 Miller Prize Winners.

2017 exhibition
The 2017 exhibition opened on 26 August and features 18 site-responsive installations in downtown Columbus. Funding from the project has come from a number of individuals, corporations, and foundations in the region, including the Ball State University, Cummins, Indiana University, Efroymson Family Fund, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. The eighteen installations on view during the inaugural exhibition were:

Miller Prize Installations
Five projects of architecture or art that are in conversation with one of the Miller Prize Sites;

2016 Miller Prize Finalists

 * Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch of Aranda\Lasch (Tucson, AZ and New York, NY)
 * Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues of Ball-Nogues Studio (Los Angeles, CA)
 * Herwig Baumgartner and Scott Uriu of Baumgartner + Uriu (Los Angeles, CA)
 * Rachel Hayes of Rachel B. Hayes Studio (Tulsa, OK)
 * Eric Höweler and Meejin Yoon of Höweler+Yoon (Boston, MA)
 * Yugon Kim and Tomomi Itakura of IKD (Boston, MA)
 * Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee of Johnston Marklee and Jonathan Olivares (Los Angeles, CA)
 * Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu of Oyler Wu Collaborative (Los Angeles, CA)
 * Joyce Hsiang and Bimal Mendis of Plan B Architecture & Urbanism (New Haven, CT)
 * Chris Cornelius of studio:indigenous (Milwaukee, WI)

2016-17 Miller Prize sites

 * First Christian Church (1942) by Saarinen and Saarinen
 * Irwin Conference Center (1954) by Eero Saarinen and Associates
 * Cleo Rogers Memorial Library (1969) by I.M. Pei and Partners
 * Cummins Corporate Office Building (1984) by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo Associates
 * Mill Race Park (1992) by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates with architecture by Stanley Saitowitz.

2016 Miller Prize Juried Presentations
On 10 December the 10 Miller Prize finalists presented their concepts to a jury that will decide the winners. The presentations took place at Columbus City Hall. The jury for the competition consisted of:
 * Sean Anderson, Museum of Modern Art
 * Lise Anne Couture, Asymptote Architecture
 * Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
 * Dung Ngo, August Editions
 * Jason Hatton, Bartholomew County Public Library
 * Mark Jones, Columbus Parks and Recreation
 * Brad Manns, Cummins Inc.
 * Larry Ruble, First Christian Church

Washington Street Installations
Five installations by designers selected by leading design galleries;
 * Columbus Circles by Productora
 * Pause by Pettersen & Hein
 * Theoretical Foyer by Cody Hoyt
 * Playhouse by Snarkitecture
 * Window to Columbus by Formafantasma

University Installations
Five installations created by architecture schools:
 * Ball State University Estopinal College of Architecture and Planning
 * The Ohio State University Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture
 * University of Cincinnati School of Architecture and Interior Design
 * University of Kentucky School of Architecture
 * University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
 * Plus an installation created by students in the Indiana University School of Art and Design;

High School Installation

 * Between the Threads by high school students from Columbus schools.

Iterations of installations
Many of the temporary installations from the exhibition have gone on to be exhibited in other exhibitions or at new sites.
 * Alchemy was exhibited as part of the 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture.
 * Playhouse was exhibited as part of a retrospective for Snarkitecture at the National Building Museum in the summer of 2018.
 * Theoretical Foyer by Cody Hoyt was given to the City of Columbus by Patrick Parish Gallery.

2016 symposium
The 2016 symposium took place September 29 to October 1 and was entitled "Foundations and Futures." It featured a sold out keynote session with Deborah Berke, Will Miller, Robert A. M. Stern, and Michael Van Valkenburgh and sessions with experts on the history of Modern architecture, Columbus, Indiana, fabrication, and the community.

The symposium was billed as the first step to launch the first exhibition which is slated to take place in August 2017. All ten of the 2016 Miller Prize Finalists were featured in panel discussions. The 2016 symposium was recognized by NUVO as a "2016 Best Of Editors Pick."

Project development
Early planning work for Exhibit Columbus began in late 2014, and the project was officially launched on 5 May 2016 in Columbus as a program of Heritage Fund—The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County. It receives funding from a number of local and regional individuals, foundations, and corporations.

100 Variations
An exhibition was developed in the fall of 2014 as a pilot project that featured designer Jonathan Nesci who created 100 unique tables for an installation in front of First Christian Church. This exhibition, "100 Variations," was produced by Indianapolis-based curator, Christopher West with support from the Haddad Foundation, the Columbus Area Visitors Center, and the Columbus Museum of Art and Design. Each of the tables was made by Noblitt Fabricating in Columbus, Indiana under the leadership of Curt Aton.

Graphic identity
The Chicago-based graphic design firm, Thirst, was hired in 2016 to create the Exhibit Columbus identity with the goal of creating a system that was aligned with Paul Rand's designs in Columbus, along with Alexander Girard's work at the Miller House and Garden. This identity was immediately recognized with an award from the Society of Typographic Artists, and has gone on to considerable critical acclaim. The identity was primarily created by Rick Valicenti, a 2006 AIGA medalist and a 2009 National Design Award winner.