On February 8, 2009, fellows, friends and supporters of the Institute for Urban Design gathered for a kick-off celebration to welcome a new team and chart an expansive next phase of urban engagement.

Generously hosted by board member Thom Mayne at his New York office, the event marked one year of transition that has built upon the legacy of the Institute’s past while looking toward the future. Architecture critic and curator Olympia Kazi was appointed executive director in the summer of 2007 to spearhead the effort to transform the Institute into an urban design think-tank. Kazi introduced the new board of directors whose keen counsel and support have already proven invaluable in pursuing the mandate to extend the Institute’s mission and programs. Chaired by urban theorist Michael Sorkin, the new board comprises a diverse group of intellectuals and practitioners, some of whom were in attendance for the party: architect and host Thom Mayne, real estate developer Matt Blesso, lawyer Craig Kaplan, sociologist Saskia Sassen and architecture historian Anthony Vidler. In her opening remarks, Kazi added that the publication last fall of The New York 2030 Notebook, with its provocative essays based on the Institute’s 2007 symposium about New York’s sustainable future, was widely successful. It has not only proven a hit at architecture and urban bookstores in New York and beyond but also attracted the attention of officials and sister organizations around the world. The volume is but the first in a planned series of Notebooks that will continue to broaden the Institute’s mission of research and advocacy.

That mission has never been more urgently important, as Mayne noted in eloquent remarks about the once-in-a-generation opportunity presented by President Obama’s administration and the Institute’s unique position as a think-tank for urban affairs. Extolling the dismal state of American infrastructure, Mayne noted that France’s hugely successful high-speed TGV rail network has proven so popular that French airlines, sensing the future, are now investing in rail service as a logical (and energy-efficient) new market. In America, of course, Amtrak remains woefully underfunded despite the desperate need for high-speed routes in heavily traveled corridors from Boston to Washington or Los Angeles to San Francisco.

In France, as Mayne pointed out, leaders actually listen to architects. Pointing to a rendering of his firm’s Phare Tower in Paris, Mayne recalled a meeting of high-profile designers convened by French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Intensely interested in urban design, Sarkozy wanted the best thinking available about France’s urban future. “Don’t tell me the solutions,” Sarkozy had instructed the group. “I want to know the problems.” Mayne proposed that the Institute help spearhead similar high-level sessions in America, inviting Obama’s team to meet not only with architects but a broad field of planners, designers, and thinkers who could shape the future of urban America.

Some of the friends and fellows who attended the party were: Bissera Antikarov, Barry Bergdoll, Cesare Birignani, Christa Blatchford, Matthew Blesso, Jeff Byles, Sara Caples, Susan Chin, Billie Cohen, Miquela Craytor, Theo David, Winka Dubbeldam, Maria Elosua, Carlo Enzo Frugiuele, Patrick Head, Steven Holl, Alayne Kaethler, Craig Kaplan, Renee Kaufman, Olympia Kazi, Brian Kenet, Nicole Kotsis, Vaidila Kungys, Ung-Joo Scott Lee, Whasoon Lisa Lee, Giuseppe Lignano, Astrid Lipka, Charles Mckinney, Denise McLee, Linda Pollak, Lyn Rice, William Ryall, Saskia Sassen, Richard Sennett, Cassim Shepard, Thor Snilsberg, Galia Solomonoff, Christopher Steinon, Sara Stracey, Koray Tokdemir, Ada Tola, Anthony Vidler, Donna Walcavage, June Williamson, and Gwendolyn Wright.