Located in the heart of downtown Kansas City, the Kansas City Design Center (KCDC) is a nationally-recognized partnership among local civic leaders, professional designers, and the architecture and planning programs at the University of Kansas and Kansas State University.
The KCDC engages university faculty and some of the region’s most talented architecture and planning students in a learning laboratory that actively explores alternatives for Kansas City’s future development.
The KCDC also serves as an independent forum for critical dialogues about architecture and planning issues, offers technical assistance to public agencies and local community organizations, and promotes excellence in the design of Kansas City’s built environment.
The Kansas City Design Center supports educational initiatives that help build public awareness of the factors that influence the character of the public realm. The KCDC also works to strengthen the educational experience of future design practitioners by engaging university faculty and students with real-world issues facing Kansas City’s built environment.
Our educational programs are built around our resident urban design studio, through which faculty and students form partnerships with local client groups to develop design concepts and implementation proposals addressing major architectural, urban design and urban planning issues throughout metropolitan Kansas City. The KCDC also coordinates and facilitates academic studio projects by faculty from our affiliated programs.