Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative
The Kent State University - Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (KSU CUDC) provides real-world learning opportunities for Kent State students and allows the Urban Design Center staff to provide design services to the entire region served by Kent State's eight campuses, with a particular emphasis on sustained relationships with Cleveland’s community development corporations and the network of non-profit organizations supporting them.
In addition to its resident academic and public service functions, the Kent State University CUDC seeks to improve the quality of life in Northeast Ohio through a range of research and advocacy activities:
- Kent State University CUDC develops information and public awareness about the physical environment and design and development issues, through practice-based research, discussion forums, exhibitions, lectures, exploratory design charrettes, competitions and international knowledge transfer.
- KSU CUDC facility is a meeting place for design and planning professionals in the region, offering space for discussion and continuing education.
- KSU CUDC helps community and neighborhood groups, providing a place to exchange ideas and facilitating collaborative work.
- KSU CUDC collaborates with the educational and advocacy efforts of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University and with partners at other universities in the region.
Through design services, research, advocacy, and the professionals it trains, the KSU CUDC works to build a sustainable and vibrant regional future based on ideas that work to:
- encourage ecological integrity
- protect natural and cultural resources
- stimulate economic prosperity
- enhance the public realm
The KSU CUDC is housed in the second story of the historic Cowell and Hubbard Building in the Playhouse Square district of Downtown Cleveland. For more on this facility, click here.