{{< alert-box title=“Cross-listed event” icon=“fas fa-exchange-alt” >}} This event is organized by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. {{< /alert-box >}}

Ferguson, Missouri became the epicenter of America’s racial tensions after the 2014 murder of Michael Brown and the protests that followed. Though this suburb just outside of St. Louis might have seemed like an average midwestern town, the activism that radiated from there after Brown’s killing laid bare just how long the community has been experiencing racial segregation, fragmentation, poverty, and police targeting.

In over one hundred maps, Radical Atlas (Belt) charts the systemic forces that underpin these conditions of inequality in Ferguson, and the first-ring suburb in America more broadly. Through an in-depth look at the contradictions undergirding city planning and design, it illuminates how tax incentives, housing codes, streets, nonprofits, philanthropy, and even landscaping often work against the betterment of residents' lives. At its heart lies a key question:

Just who are our cities being built for?

This talk is presented by Patty Heyda, a professor of urban design and architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. She draws on her professional experience across the disciplines to study American cities and design policies, with a focus on mapping, urban redevelopment and public futures.