In 2012, world-renowned architect Brian Lee made the journey to TEDxFargo to share his philosophy on design: that our cities should be cohesive and connected, vibrant and full of opportunity, stimulating and inspiring. Buildings, in their design, should enrich the experiences that occur within them.
“We shape our cities, and therefore they shape us,” he said, a play on the famous Churchill quote.
But Lee did not make the trip from Chicago just to give an 18-minute speech to a room of 100-some people. He came to design a master plan for one of his firm’s upcoming projects- and that project, set to begin construction this fall, was Block 9.
Lee is a design partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), one of the world’s largest and most influential architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban planning firms.