Landmark Columbus Foundation (LCF) demonstrates what design excellence can mean to a community: earned through discipline, proven in public, and cared for as a legacy for the future.

Our Focus Areas

Civic Design Institute
defines the discipline and shares the methods

Progressive Preservation
cares for design excellence over time

Exhibit Columbus
tests design excellence in public

Monumental Gestures
applies the method in other cities

News and Events

Close-up of two carved stone hands framed by a yellow-green circle, the graphic for The Monument Knows

Event

The Monument Knows Public Conversation No. 3

with Rasul Mowatt and Tiffany Tolbert

Monday, November 2
Hilbert Circle Theatre
Doors at 4:30 pm
Program at 5 pm

Free and open to the public
Advance registration required

What is missing from the Monument? Whose histories does it hold and whose does it leave out? Join us for The Monument Knows: Public Conversation No. 3 with Rasul Mowatt and Tiffany Tolbert. Together, they’ll explore how race, memory, and power are written into public space, and what it means to care for a landmark as living heritage rather than as a finished object. Learn more about the event at askthemonument.org.

Portraits of keynote speakers Maurice Cox and Courtney Spearman
Portraits of U.S. Senator Todd Young and moderator Daniel Luis Martinez

Event

Prove It Summit Keynote with Maurice Cox and Courtney Spearman

What does design excellence look like in large cities and rural towns?

Thursday, October 8
The Commons
300 Washington Street
Columbus, Indiana

Reception 5:30 pm
Program 6–7:30 pm

Two national design leaders, Maurice Cox (pictured top left) and Courtney Spearman (pictured top right), whose work reaches from some of America’s largest cities to its smallest towns and Tribal communities, joined us for a conversation about the places we build, the people they serve, and what it takes to create lasting value.

The program began with a welcome from Mayor Mary Ferdon and Tracy Haddad, Board Chair of Landmark Columbus Foundation, with remarks from U.S. Senator Todd Young (pictured bottom left). Courtney Spearman and Maurice Cox delivered keynote presentations, followed by a conversation moderated by Daniel Luis Martinez (pictured bottom right).

Publication

BEEN THERE, DOING THIS

2025 Annual Report

The 2025 Annual Report documents the final year of a five-year grant that helped establish the organization as a lasting civic institution. It records major investments in preservation and public art, the Exhibit Columbus record, and new national initiatives, and introduces Design Excellence as Civic Practice as the framework that guides the work ahead.

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