DEADLINE EXTENDED to Feb. 15th - Re-opened Call for Abstracts and Design Competition

Join us for an important IN-PERSON International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference in the livable showcase of suburban retrofit, Carmel, Indiana, June 8-12, 2021

Our Board of Stewards, many of whom will speak at the conference, from top left: Allam, Zaheer, urban strategist, Visio Architecture Ltd, Mauritius; Brainard, James, Mayor of Carmel, IN, USA; Burrell, John, Architect, UK; Condon, Patrick, Professor of Urban Design, University of British Columbia; Dunham-Jones, Ellen, Professor, Georgia Tech, USA; Ferguson, George, architect, past president, RIBA and former Mayor, Bristol, UK.; Fernández Gómez, Ricardo Arturo, Director of Development, State of Jalisco, Mexico; Jackson, Richard, Professor Emeritus of Public Health, UCLA, USA ;Low, Setha, Professor, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA; Lykoudis, Michael, Professor, former Dean, University of Notre Dame, USA; Mahdjoubi, Lamine, Dip. Arch, M.Phil, PhD is Professor of the Built Environment, at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK.; Mazzola, Ettore, Professor, University of Notre Dame, USA; Miguelez, Alain, Manager of Policy Planning, City of Ottawa, Canada ; Nguyen, Ngoc, Professor, University of Da Nang, Vietnam; Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark, Research Professor, IS Global Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Spain; Petrella, Laura, Head of Planning, Finance and Economy, Urban Practices Branch, UN-Habitat, Kenya; Phillips, Rick, architect, San Francisco, USA; Plater-Zyberk, Elizabeth, architect, DPZ CoDesign, Professor, University of Miami, USA; Roji, Ayanda, General Manager, Research, Policy and Knowledge Management, City of Johannesburg, South Africa; Stafford, Philip, Co-Design Director, Commons Planning, Inc. and former Professor of Anthropology, Indiana University; Talen, Emily, Professor, University of Chicago, USA; von Ungern-Sternberg, Sven, Governor of State of Süd-Baden, and former Mayor of Freiburg, Germany.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: Extended to February 15, 2021 We are excited about plans proceeding for the 57th IMCL conference in Carmel, Indiana, a fascinating showcase of suburban retrofit tools and techniques. We will have a beautiful and spacious venue, offering social distancing in comfort. Carmel is 180 miles south of Chicago, and we will have participation from many cities and universities in the area and beyond. With accelerating rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, we look forward to gathering in person to celebrate -- and learn from -- livable cities around the world! PLEASE CONSIDER SUBMITTING AN ABSTRACT OR DESIGN AWARD ENTRY We received an inspiring mix of proposals for our 2020 conference, which was postponed to June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because we have a generous venue space, and we know that some who planned to come last year will not be able to come this year, we have decided to re-open the invitation for a select number of additional proposals. We still have a few openings for presentations left! We therefore hope you will share your achievements and learn from others about how we can best promote healthy, sustainable, livable cities, towns and suburbs. We will discuss the best models for encouraging walking, biking and public transit, high-density human scale mixed use, places to foster daily social life and community, opportunities for daily contact with nature, and equitable neighborhood planning. Of course, we will have an important emphasis on assessing the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic for cities and for public space. Since 1985, the IMCL has been a premier international conference venue for mayors, planners, architects, NGOs, and academics. The IMCL was founded by Henry Lennard, Ph.D., a medical sociologist, and Suzanne Lennard, Ph.D., a distinguished architectural scholar and author. The conferences alternate between US and European venues, and attract a diverse group of leaders from around the world.

Design competition entry information and submission instructions can be found here: https://livablecities.org/design-awards-competition Paper proposals are invited from elected officials, scholars and practitioners concerned with issues including the following topics: Reshaping Suburban Sprawl - Reshaping the mall into a town center - Transforming strip malls into urban fabric - Schools as neighborhood centers The Healthy City - Promoting health equity throughout the city - Prioritizing pedestrian, bike and transit - Access to community social life - Access to nature, clean air and water, food - Designing high density human scale, mixed use urban fabric Livable Cities and the Lessons of COVID-19 - Innovative adaptations to keep people safe and sociable - Telecommuting and distance learning: avoiding isolation and loneliness - Lessons for public space in the post-COVID city - COVID19 as a “teachable moment”: what have we learned? Public Health and Planning Collaboration - Integrating public health and planning in city government and education - How the built and/or natural environment affects health and human DNA - Health impact assessment, neighborhood health inventories, healthy planning guidelines A Livable City for ALL - Prioritizing planning for children, elders, the poor - Inclusionary planning for socio-economic neighborhood diversity - Intergenerational place-based and ethnic communities Healthy Transportation Planning - Urban pedestrian networks, bicycle planning, buffered bikeways - Complete streets, green streets, greening urban arterials - Improving transit services for all, especially poorer neighborhoods Healthy Urban Fabric for 10-Minute neighborhoods - Achieving fine-grained vertical mixed-use, human scale urban fabric - Sustainability problems of horizontal and vertical sprawl - Form-based codes, urban design guidelines International Collaboration and Peer-to-Peer Knowledge Sharing - Implementing the New Urban Agenda: A new generation of livable cities and towns - Learning from each other: the role of the USA and Europe as collaborators (and better role models) - Tools and strategies to share internationally: patterns and wikis - New challenges with rapid urbanization, slums and informal settlements, poverty, opportunity and capacity. Access to Nature - Neighborhood parks and green spaces, urban agriculture - Promoting the urban forest: incidental nature: streets, walls, roofs - Restoring urban watercourses/streams/rivers Public Places for Social Life - Hospitable streets - Multi-functional city and neighborhood squares Sustainable, Equitable Housing - Inclusionary housing, shared equity, and land trusts - Designing affordable family housing in the city - Designs for mixed-income housing Ending homelessness - Housing, services and jobs for homeless persons - Integrated strategies to combat poverty - Combatting the commodification of cities Combatting inequitable gentrification - Regenerating poor neighborhoods and brownfields - Stabilizing housing and job security for existing populations - Healthy sustainable urban growth strategies Strengthening ethnic and cultural diversity - Protecting communities of color - Social and physical landmarks - Places for traditional and new events Reducing Negative Health Impacts - Fighting climate change by healthy urban design - Strategies to improve air and water quality - Reducing urban heat islands, light pollution, urban noise Community Participation - Civic engagement in planning, place-making, regeneration - Children and youth help improve their neighborhood - Community-led public space improvements Architecture for a Healthy City - Street facades, scale and fractals - Architecture and the public realm - Urban design to create community Maintaining a City’s Identity - Cultural patrimony: foundation for a habitable city - Generating love for the city and neighborhood - Strengthening the city’s architectural DNA INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROPOSAL SUBMISSION This is a highly competitive process. Proposals are peer reviewed and selected for presentation at the conference. Written papers are requested from all presenters (except Pecha Kucha), and must be submitted by those presenters wishing to be considered for publication by IMCL. Final papers are peer reviewed and selected for publication in the conference proceedings, the eConference. Please submit online at https://www.livablecities.org/call-papers-form

Please prepare proposals for blind peer review. The personal information is required but will not be circulated to reviewers. In the abstract box, please include paper title and abstract (200-250 words), but do not include any personal information. Please be aware that the Program Committee will select presentations for one of the following categories:

1. Full presentations. Peer reviewed. 20 minute PPT presentation, plus 10 minute Q&A. Written papers are requested (see above).

2. Short presentations. Peer reviewed. 15 minute PPT presentation. General session. Written papers are requested (see above).

3. Poster presentations. Intended for Ph.D. students and junior presenters. Presented as a poster in a general Poster Session. Written papers are requested (see above).

4. The Program Committee also invites proposals for Pecha Kucha presentations – 20 slides automatically advanced every 20 seconds. This is only suitable for presenting a simple idea, challenging argument, or entertaining spoof. The topic must be relevant. If you wish to propose a PK presentation please specify this at the top, and list 20 short sentences to identify the line of your presentation. Papers are not requested.

Notification will be sent within 4 weeks of submission. Papers must be presented in person at the conference, and thus presenters must register for the conference at the special presenter's rate (or Junior presenters rate for Ph.D. students). The EXTENDED deadline for paper abstracts is FEBRUARY 15, 2021. Final accepted papers are due April 30, 2021. They will be published in the digital conference proceedings. For questions, contact us at admin@livablecities.org. Thank you, and we hope to see you in Carmel!

Michael W. Mehaffy, Ph.D. Executive Director Suzanne C. and Henry L. Lennard Institute for Livable Cities, Inc. --- A 501(c)(3) Educational Public Benefit Corporation Hosts of the International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference A premier international conference on urban quality of life since 1985