Upcoming Events
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Design/HEALth Summit 2026
| 11:30 AM - 01:00 PM
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Neuro Inclusive Design Summit
| 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Past Events
2025 DESIGN/HEALth Summit
On June 20, 2025, Professor Nan Ellin and architect Don Ruggles hosted the DESIGN/HEALth initiative's inaugural DESIGN/HEALth Summit at the Fulginiti Pavilion. The event featured inspiring presentations by Eric Corey Freed (Cannon Design), Susan Powers (Urban Ventures), and Kathleen Fogler (Ideal Wilderness).
Past Presenters
Eric Corey Freed
Principal, Director of Sustainability, Cannon Design
Topic: Symbiosis: Designing to Affect Occupant Outcomes Through Biology
Key Takeaways from Summit 2025
Biology is a 3.8-billion-year-old technology. It’s time we design like nature does.
However, our buildings are making us sick. They’re filled with toxic chemicals, sealed from nature, and disconnected from how people actually heal.
Buildings should not just shelter us—they should heal us.
Susan Powers
President, Urban Ventures LLC
Topic: Health in Neighborhood Design: Aria Denver & amp; The Tapestry Block
Key Takeaways from Summit 2025
Belonging is not a luxury. It’s foundational to health. Belonging lowers blood pressure. A sense of community is health infrastructure.
Residents told us what mattered most wasn’t unit size or finishes. It was their family’s health.
Community members carry the wisdom. Our job is to design with them, not for them.
Kathleen Fogler
Architect and Urban Designer, Ideal Wilderness
Topic: Creating Holistic Environments for Health, Wellness, and Innovation
Key Takeaways from Summit 2025
At the Fitzsimmons Innovation Community, we have more developable land than Kendall Square or Mission Bay. The opportunity here is extraordinary.
Nature is not an amenity on the edge—it’s the structural backbone of a healthy campus.
The environment must sustain the people doing life-changing work.
2025 DESIGN/HEALth Summit Photos
The Summit is made possible by
The College of Architecture and Planning
The CU Anschutz Center for Bioethics and Humanities
Dr. C.W. Bixler Family Foundation
ZGF
Green Building Initiative (GBI)
HKS
Ballinger
Ruggles Lindemann Bell Architecture and Interior Design