DOWNTOWN SARASOTA: BEYOND OUR BORDERS

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Following up on last year’s sell-out speaker series, Downtown Sarasota: Hindsight, Insight and Foresight, Architecture Sarasota is presenting a new speaker series, Downtown Sarasota: Beyond Our Borders. Our 2024 speaker series was cited by the City of Sarasota as the catalyst for the recent decision to move forward with the preparation of a new downtown master plan. This year’s series will feature renowned urbanists based out-side the United States, providing thought-provoking international perspectives on Sarasota and its prospects.

Presenters include Gil Penalosa (February 11th), Brent Toderain (February 25th) and Paul Kalbfleisch (March 11th) – each selected for his unique point of view, deep experience, and engaging presentation style. Speakers will offer comments specific to Sarasota, informed by time spent in the city in advance of their presentations. Once again, our aim is to inform, stimulate, and engage our audience, with the practical result of continuing to elevate a community-wide conversation and allowing us to take more effective steps toward a better future for Sarasota.

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We would like to thank our initial sponsors as of January 13, 2025.

SPEAKERS, DATES, AND TICKETS

All lectures will take place in the Main Sanctuary of Church of the Redeemer Episcopal, 222 S Palm Ave

EARLY ACCESS TICKETING IS LIVE FOR MEMBERS ONLY NOW UNTIL FRIDAY JANUARY 17, 2025 at 12:00 MIDNIGHT!

Members will receive an early access ticketing code in their email inbox

Ticket Bundle Price: $50

Individual Ticket Price: $20

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Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Lecture 1 – Cities for Everyone:

Creating Healthy, Equitable, and Sustainable Communities

Gil Penalosa, President, Gil Penalosa & Associates

Gil Penalosa is passionate about cities for all people. Because of his unique blend of experience, pragmatism, and passion, many cities worldwide seek his leadership and valuable advice. He has worked in over 350 cities.

Gil is the Founder and Chair of the successful Canadian non-profit organization 8 80 Cities and founder of Cities for Everyone. In 2022 Gil ran for mayor of Toronto. In 100 days, he got 100,000 votes, and changed much of the conversation. Currently Gil is an academic chair at the Norman Foster Institute for Sustainable Cities, as well as Expert Advisor to the International Society for Urban Health. He also runs his consultancy, Gil Penalosa & Associates.

Gil was elected twice as chair of World Urban Parks. He holds an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, received a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the Faculty of Urban Planning at Swedish SLU. In 2023 Gil was voted to Planetizen’s Top 100 Most Influential Contemporary Urbanists, at #13.

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Lecture 2 – Cities for Thriving:

Creating Innovative and Successful Urban Environments

Brent Toderian, TODERIAN urbanWORKS

Brent Toderian is an internationally respected thought-leader on cities and practitioner in advanced urbanism, city planning, transportation, urban design, downtown revitalization and urban change management. He consults for cities and; best-practice developers across North America and around the globe, with current or recent international engagements that include the cities of Sydney, Auckland, Sacramento, Medellin, Oslo, Helsinki, and Reykjavik. He has also advised many cities similar in nature to Sarasota.

His establishment of TODERIAN UrbanWORKS in 2012 followed 6 years of significant achievement as Vancouver Canada’s Chief City Planner, with accomplishments that included 2010 Winter Olympics-related planning and; design, the EcoDensity and Greenest City Initiatives, transit-oriented development and multi-modal transportation, creative place-making, and strategies emphasizing a “complete,” sustainable, livable and successful city.

Brent is the past/founding President of the Council for Canadian Urbanism, a writer for Fast Company, Huffington Post, Bloomberg CityLab as well as many other publications, and a highly sought-after international speaker and media commentator on cities and advanced urbanism. He has twice (2017 and 2023) been voted one of the 100 most influential global urbanists in history (19 th in 2023) by Planetizen.

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Lecture 1 – Cities for Joy:

Creating Urban Spaces that Promote Social Vibrancy

Paul Kalbfleisch, Co-Author of The Joy Experiments: Reimagining Mid-sized Cities to Heal Our Divided Society

Paul Kalbfleisch is a multi-disciplined speaker and writer on the topic of city building, business consultant and creator of public art.

In his corporate business life, he was vice-president of creativity and brand strategy for Research in Motion (creators of BlackBerry). In that role he developed strategies for placing the brand into popular culture. Kalbfliesch’s writing explores how society, by emphasizing individual materialism and economic efficiency as the indicators of quality of life, has led to a social recession, with increased isolation and depression. He is co-author, along with Scott Higgins -President of HIP Developments, of “The JOY Experiments – Reimagining Mid-Sized Cities as a Tool to Heal Our Divided Society.”

Through his consulting he helps city builders set a new play, live, work city building priority that elevates the collective human spirit for social and economic prosperity. His work focuses on new strategies that move beyond traditional quality of life measures to prioritizing the benefits of infrastructure for the human spirit found in joyful cities.

His was a presenter at the UN Habitat World Urban Forum and speaker at a TEDx Talk. His strategic and creative guidance were instrumental in the creation of The Gaslight District in Cambridge, Ontario, and placed 3rd in a global “15 Minute City” design competition.

In the context of rapid change and transformation and in the wake of natural disasters, Architecture Sarasota is launching a multifaceted initiative focused on the future of downtown Sarasota. Downtown Sarasota 2050 engages residents and those who care about the city to explore its future as a sustainable, resilient, and vibrant community. The initiative is intended to advance the constructive, community wide dialogue initiated by the Downtown Sarasota: Hindsight, Insight, and Foresight lecture series and advanced by the current series – Downtown Sarasota: Beyond our Borders. Other activities include:

Moderns That Matter: Downtown Sarasota Exhibition

With input from residents and those who care about the community, Architecture Sarasota created the Moderns That Matter: Sarasota 100 – a list of 100 places and spaces that give Sarasota its sense of place and character. The Moderns That Matter: Downtown Sarasota exhibition will examine the current demographics and context of the City of Sarasota and present the histories and futures of 12 sites – buildings, public spaces, and neighborhoods / districts.

Downtown Sarasota: Hindsight, Insight & Foresight

DOWNTOWN SARASOTA: BEYOND OUR BORDERS

We would like to thank our initial sponsors as of January 13, 2025.

SPEAKERS, DATES, AND TICKETS

McCulloch Pavilion

EXHIBITION, SHOP & READING ROOM

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