Founder of MacArthur “genius”  firm, Diller Scofidio + Renfro

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The founding principal of the first architecture firm to receive a MacArthur “genius” grant will lecture in Kansas City, thanks in part to the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Department of Architecture, Urban Planning + Design.

Elizabeth Diller is a founder of the groundbreaking architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro. She will speak at 6 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 7, in the Atkins Auditorium of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

DS+R recently completed the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts redevelopment project in New York, the expansion of the Juilliard School, the expansion of the School of American Ballet, and the redevelopment of an elevated urban park called The High Line on an obsolete railway line in New York. The firm also won an Obie for Jet Lag, a wildly creative piece of multimedia off-Broadway theater.

“We want to give our students, as well as the community, a forum to interact with one of the country’s top architects. This lecture is just one in what we hope will be a long series of conversations about design, and planning,” said Joy Swallow, chair of UMKC’s Dept. of Architecture, Urban Planning + Design.

Tickets are $10 for Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art members, $15 for nonmembers and $5 for students.

This lecture is a partnership between the Mary Atkins Trustees and the Seligson Fund and UMKC’s Dept. of Architecture, Urban Planning + Design.