Washington, DC - March 22, 2016 - The American Architectural Foundation (AAF) announced today that the Project Downtown: Douglas & Market submission from Wichita, Kansas has been selected to participate in the 2016 Sustainable Cities Design Academy. The project team, comprised of representatives from Bokeh Development, the City of Wichita and the Wichita Downtown Development Corporation (WDDC) is one of four winning public-private development teams chosen from a well-qualified field that applied for the chance to showcase their work before a panel of international visionary designers and sustainability leaders in the intensive, three-day design charrette in Washington, DC, August 3-5.

The selected teams—consisting of city leaders, developers and design professionals—will join AAF's national sustainable design team of experts for the esteemed cross-disciplinary training and implementation planning, now in its 8th year.

“This opportunity will allow us to look at the Douglas and Market area of Downtown through a new lens. Bokeh Development’s holdings are a key to unlocking future development in this area. Through strategic and sustainable design principles, we can ensure successful connectivity. We also know that partnerships between the City and the private sector will continue to play a critical role going forward,” stated Jason Gregory, WDDC Executive Vice President.

Project teams apply and compete to attend the Sustainable Cities Design Academy, which provides resources, education, and best practices support for environmentally, fiscally, and socially sound design decisions that often pose thorny challenges for municipal leaders working towards transformational change in their communities.

Since establishing the Sustainable Cities Design Academy in 2009, AAF has served 55 project teams in cities across the United States through the generous support of its program sponsor, United Technologies Corporation.

“Bringing buildings to life through sustainable design is what our company is about. We look forward to the Design Academy and the expertise it affords our projects and this community,” stated Bokeh Development’s Mike Ramsey.

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