Lake Superior Design Retreat (LSDR)
TinkerToys Reinvisioned: 2010 Retreat activity
Retreat 2009 attendees
Duluth streetscape
LSDR Committee Information
The design retreat is an annual winter weekend getaway in Duluth, MN. Architects and others interested in design gather together at Fitgers Inn to explore the corners of design with six invited design professionals who share their passion for their art and/or craft and discuss their creative stories. Past speakers have represented a variety of professions such as dancers, architects, journalists, sculptors, explorers, scientists, storytellers, photographers, singers, economists, engineers of many kinds and a diverse array of thinkers, designers and artists.
This is an AIA Minnesota event unlike any other! Plan to attend.
Chair: Joan Bren, AIA
AIA Staff Liaison: Deanna Christiansen
Meeting Date: Third Monday of the month at 11:30a.m. at the AIA Minnesota office
24th Annual Lake Superior Design Retreat
February 24-25, 2012 in Duluth
Meet in Duluth the last weekend in February 2012 to explore with others the corners of design.
An AIA Minnesota event unlike any other.
Save the date!
The 2012 LSDR Retreat is February 24-25.
Confirmed Speakers:
Michael Barone
Chris Downey
Carl Haensel
Calvin Brook
Megan Quinn-Bachman
Butch Roy
LSDR Rediscovered 2011
By Bill Beyer, FAIA
I attended my first Lake Superior Design Retreat in 1995, and was so amazed at the chemistries of the Program, the Players and the Place that I volunteered for the LSDR Committee. For the next decade, my wife Molly and I didn’t miss a single Retreat. We couldn’t attend from 2005 to 2010, but got back to Duluth this year and rediscovered the LSDR magic.
For 23 years the Committee has designed the Retreat for balance, (at a ratio of 5 non-architect speakers to one architect to limit navel-gazing), selecting speakers for the passion they’ve exhibited in designing and making beautiful things of all kinds.
The Program spans Friday noon to Saturday night, a series of presentations, meals, tours and interludes which engage both speakers and attendees while allowing time to absorb, think and talk. Uniquely, speakers are asked to stay the entire weekend to join the conversation rather than to speak and run.
The Place is Duluth; the historic Fitger’s Hotel and retail complex provides venue and lodging. Its theater seats about 150, a sensible upper limit on attendance while still achieving critical mass. The Escher-esque circulation system of the Fitger’s complex adds serendipity. Lake Superior vistas confirm Duluth as Queen of the North Coast while the February weather invariably distinguishes this event from all others.
The Players (speakers plus attendees) catalyze all elements of the Retreat with their willingness to suspend disbelief and engage each other. If you missed LSDR this year, you missed:
· Debra Frasier, whose presentation about her making of children’s books was so ethereally beautiful that it would be sacrilege to call it a Powerpoint.
· Edith Ackermann, Developmental Psychologist who shared her research on how children learn, and Bert Yankielun, PE, who shared his community geekiness via igloo-building.
· Jerry Messman, AIA, whose elegant design solution to third-world housing collided messily with the human factor, and Sam Bousfield, who invented a flying motorcycle worthy of the Jetsons.
· And Rick Defoe, an Anishinabe elder who shared a pipe ceremony in his native language mixed with the very real pain of institutional racism
For the sake of your own engaged mind, you MUST NOT MISS the unique chemistry of LSDR next year.