Downtown Sarasota: Beyond Our Borders Lecture Series Bundle

About Downtown Sarasota: Beyond Our Borders*

Following up on last year’s sell-out speaker series, Downtown Sarasota: Hindsight, Insight and Foresight, Architecture Sarasota is presenting a new speaker series, Downtown Sarasota: Beyond Our Borders. Our 2024 speaker series was cited by the City of Sarasota as the catalyst for the recent decision to move forward with the preparation of a new downtown master plan. This year’s series will feature renowned urbanists based out- side the United States, providing thought-provoking international perspectives on Sarasota and its prospects.

Presenters include Gil Penalosa (February 11th), Brent Toderain (February 25th) and Paul Kalbfleisch (March 11th) – each selected for his unique point of view, deep experience, and engaging presentation style. Speakers will offer comments specific to Sarasota, informed by time spent in the city in advance of their presentations. Once again, our aim is to inform, stimulate, and engage our audience, with the practical result of continuing to elevate a community-wide conversation and allowing us to take more effective steps toward a better future for Sarasota.

*Purchasers of this event Bundle will recieve a single event ticket that can be used for all three lecture dates in this series. You will be notified as dates appraoch, but please save these dates when you purchase this bundle

All letures in this series will take place from 6:00-7:30pm in the Main Sanctuary at Church of the Redeemer Episcopal, 222 S Palm Ave

In this Series:

02/11/25 - Lecture 1

Cities for Everyone: Creating Healthy, Equitable, and Sustainable Communities

Gil Penalosa, President, Gil Penalosa & Associates

01/28/25 - Lecture 2

Cities for Thriving: Creating Innovatice and Dynamic Urban Communities

Brent Toderian, TODERIAN urbanWORKS

02/04/25 - Lecture 3

Cities for Joy: Creating Urban Spaces that Promotes Social Vibrancy

Paul Kalbfliesch, Co-Author of The Joy Experiements: Reimagining Cities to Heal Our Divided Society

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Gil Penalosa

President, Gil Penalosa & Associates

Gil Penalosa is passionate about cities for all people. Because of his unique blend of experience, pragmatism, and passion, many cities worldwide seek his leadership and valuable advice. He has worked in over 350 cities.

Gil is the Founder and Chair of the successful Canadian non-profit organization 8 80 Cities and founder of Cities for Everyone. In 2022 Gil ran for mayor of Toronto. In 100 days, he got 100,000 votes, and changed much of the conversation. Currently Gil is an academic chair at the Norman Foster Institute for Sustainable Cities, as well as Expert Advisor to the International Society for Urban Health. He also runs his consultancy, Gil Penalosa & Associates.

Gil was elected twice as chair of World Urban Parks. He holds an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, received a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the Faculty of Urban Planning at Swedish SLU. In 2023 Gil was voted to Planetizen’s Top 100 Most Influential Contemporary Urbanists, at #13.

Brent Toderian

TODERIAN urbanWORKS

Brent Toderian is an internationally respected thought-leader on cities and practitioner in advanced urbanism, city planning, transportation, urban design, downtown revitalization and urban change management. He consults for cities and; best-practice developers across North America and around the globe, with current or recent international engagements that include the cities of Sydney, Auckland, Sacramento, Medellin, Oslo, Helsinki, and Reykjavik. He has also advised many cities similar in nature to Sarasota.

His establishment of TODERIAN UrbanWORKS in 2012 followed 6 years of significant achievement as Vancouver Canada’s Chief City Planner, with accomplishments that included 2010 Winter Olympics-related planning and; design, the EcoDensity and Greenest City Initiatives, transit-oriented development and multi-modal transportation, creative place-making, and strategies emphasizing a “complete,” sustainable, livable and successful city.

Brent is the past/founding President of the Council for Canadian Urbanism, a writer for Fast Company, Huffington Post, Bloomberg CityLab as well as many other publications, and a highly sought-after international speaker and media commentator on cities and advanced urbanism. He has twice (2017 and 2023) been voted one of the 100 most influential global urbanists in history (19 th in 2023) by Planetizen.

Paul Kalbfliesch

Co-Author of The Joy Experiments:

Reimagining Mid-sized Cities to Heal Our Divided Society

Paul Kalbfleisch is a multi-disciplined speaker and writer on the topic of city building, business consultant and creator of public art. In his corporate business life, he was vice-president of creativity and brand s trategy for Research in Motion (creators of BlackBerry). In that role he developed strategies for placing the brand into popular culture.

Kalbfliesch’s writing explores how society, by emphasizing individual materialism and economic efficiency as the indicators of quality of life, has led to a social recession, with increased isolation and depression. He is co-author, along with Scott Higgins -President of HIP Developments, of “The JOY Experiments – Reimagining Mid-Sized Cities as a Tool to Heal Our Divided Society.”

Through his consulting he helps city builders set a new play, live, work city building priority that elevates the collective human spirit for social and economic prosperity. His work focuses on new strategies that move beyond traditional quality of life measures to prioritizing the benefits of infrastructure for the human spirit found in joyful cities.

His was a presenter at the UN Habitat World Urban Forum and speaker at a TEDx Talk. His strategic and creative guidance were instrumental in the creation of The Gaslight District in Cambridge, Ontario, and placed 3rd in a global “15 Minute City” design competition.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Church of the Redeemer Episcopal, 222 South Palm Avenue, Sarasota, United States