全球视野 | 持续70年的设计慈善：米勒和他的康明斯公司如何改变了美国中西部的一座小城

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文章《How 70 Years of Design Philanthropy Transformed a Midwestern City/70年的设计慈善如何改变了美国中西部的一座城市》发布在慈善纪事报上，作者是Eden Stiffman。这篇文章详细阐述了印第安纳州哥伦布市如何在过去70年间，通过设计慈善实现了从一个普通美国中西部小镇，到现代建筑中心的转变。这一转型的核心推动力是J.欧文·米勒及其家族公司康明斯的长期投资和独特的慈善哲学。文章回顾了哥伦布市的设计崛起、慈善模式、建筑遗产以及其对社区和全美国的影响。

About an hour south of Indianapolis, an unlikely collection of modern architecture is tucked throughout this town. There is a brick public library with a high waffled ceiling by I.M. Pei., a fire station featuring clean lines and a stylized number 4 by Robert Venturi, and a hexagonal Eero Saarinen church with a narrow spire that appears ready to launch into space. 

距印第安纳州印第安纳波利斯以南约一小时车程的哥伦布市，隐藏着一系列意想不到的现代建筑。这里有一座由贝聿铭设计的砖砌公共图书馆，它有着高挑的华夫格天花板；一座由罗伯特·文丘里设计的消防站，其特色是简洁的线条和风格化的数字4；还有一座由埃罗·沙里宁设计的六角形教堂，有着狭长的尖塔，仿佛随时准备升空。 

Welcome to Columbus, Ind., population 51,000. This town’s emergence as a hub of mid-century American design is largely thanks to Joseph Irwin Miller, an idealistic industrialist and philanthropist, and his family’s company, the diesel engine manufacturer Cummins. 

欢迎来到印第安纳州哥伦布市，这里人口约有51000人。这个小城之所以能成为美国世纪中期现代主义设计的中心，主要归功于J.欧文·米勒这位理想主义的实业家和慈善家，以及他的家族企业——柴油发动机制造商康明斯。 

In the 1950s, Miller wanted to attract engineering talent to Cummins and accommodate a growing population due to the Baby Boom. He believed cutting-edge design would help draw the best and the brightest to his Midwestern town. 

在1950年代，米勒希望吸引工程人才加入康明斯，并应对婴儿潮带来的人口增长。他相信，前沿的设计将有助于吸引最优秀、最聪明的人才，来到他所在的这个中西部小城。 

“It wasn’t really an architecture program in its initial conception,” says Will Miller, the youngest of Miller’s five children. “It was a response to a community problem with a creative solution in the moment.” 

威尔·米勒（他是米勒五个孩子中最小的一个）说道：“在最初构想中，它并不是一个真正的建筑项目。它只是对社区问题的回应，是当时的一种创造性解决方案。”

His father, who was also influential in the civil rights movement, never intended to turn his hometown into a design mecca or a tourist attraction. Yet because of the high concentration of buildings, public artworks, and landscape architecture projects by modernist masters, it’s become a site of pilgrimage for tens of thousands of architecture aficionados. 

米勒的父亲在民权运动中颇具影响力，但他从未打算将家乡变成一个设计圣地或旅游景点。然而，由于这里集中了大量现代主义大师们的建筑、公共艺术作品和景观建筑项目，这里已成为成千上万建筑爱好者的朝圣之地。 

Columbus, the subject of a new book and the backdrop of a 2017 movie, is not just a marvel of design. It’s also exemplary of place-based philanthropy and its long civic tail. The model of philanthropy Miller championed, through the Cummins Foundation and the family’s personal giving, was one of soft influence — an approach that required community input and collaboration. That approach continues today. 

哥伦布市是一本新书的主题，也是一部2017年电影的背景，但它不仅仅是一个设计奇迹。它还体现了以地方为基础的慈善事业及其悠久的公民传统。米勒所倡导的慈善模式，通过康明斯基金会和家族的个人捐赠，是一种软性影响力的模式——这种方式需要社区的参与和合作。这一模式至今仍在继续。 

Miller’s architectural experiment helped shape the town’s culture around a consensus that urban aesthetics matter. That legacy is carried on today by nonprofits like the Landmark Columbus Foundation, which funds creative ways to maintain historic properties and introduces the town’s design ethos to new generations, all while continuing to bring together a diverse group of community partners. And the Cummins Foundation has been there all along, continuing to support new design in its backyard. 

米勒的建筑实验帮助塑造了哥伦布市的文化，使人们形成了一种共识：城市美学很重要。哥伦布地标基金会等非营利组织将这一传统延续至今。该基金会资助创新的方式来维护历史建筑，并向新一代人介绍小城的设计理念，同时继续汇聚各种社区的合作伙伴。而康明斯基金会一直在那里，继续支持其本地的新设计。 

The Cummins Foundation’s cumulative investment into the architecture program in the nearly 70 years since it began is somewhere just north of $20 million, though executives would not confirm a dollar amount. That’s a relatively tiny fraction of the corporate foundation’s overall grant making, which includes support for local nonprofits focused on education, equity, and the environment in the communities where its employees live and work. But it’s certainly the most visible and famous part. 

自康明斯基金会成立的近70年来，该基金会对建筑项目的累计投资约为2000万美元，尽管基金会的高管们不愿透露具体金额。但这只是该企业基金会整体捐赠中的一小部分。该基金会还支持在员工生活和工作的社区里的非营利组织，专注于当地的教育、平等和环境等领域。但无疑，这部分投资是最引人注目和知名的。 

“There’s a fair amount of corporate activism out there that would suggest that’s not an appropriate place to put shareholder dollars,” says Jim Schacht, vice president of corporate responsibility at Cummins and CEO of the Cummins Foundation. “We can have a very confident discussion of why we do this, but we would rather not. We would rather talk about the positive impact and the legacy of architecture and design in our headquarters community that we’ve contributed to.” 

康明斯公司负责企业责任的副总裁、康明斯基金会CEO吉姆·沙赫特说：“有相当多的企业行动主义人士认为，这并不是一个适合投入股东资金的地方。我们可以非常自信地讨论这样做的原因，但我们宁愿不谈这个。因为我们更愿意谈论，我们为总部所在社区的建筑与设计，所带来的积极影响和遗产。”

Columbus might have remained an aesthetically average Midwestern town if not for Miller’s friendship with a budding Finnish-American architect, Eero Saarinen. 

如果不是J.欧文·米勒与崭露头角的芬兰裔美国建筑师埃罗·沙里宁的友谊，哥伦布市可能仍旧是一个在美学上普通的美国中西部小城镇。 

In the 1930s, Saarinen’s father, Eliel, was hired to design a new building for First Christian Church, the Miller family’s congregation. As one of the first modernist churches in the country, the design was revolutionary in Columbus and beyond. Saarinen came from Michigan’s Cranbrook Academy of Art, an influential hub of modern architectural thought, to meet with the church’s building committee, which included Miller’s mother and great uncle. Miller, in his 20s at the time, was tasked with entertaining the younger members of the design team. 

20世纪30年代，埃罗·沙里宁的父亲伊利尔·沙里宁，受聘为米勒家族所属的教会——第一基督教堂，设计一座新建筑。作为美国最早的现代主义教堂之一，这一设计在哥伦布市及其他地区都具有革命性的意义。沙里宁来自密歇根州克兰布鲁克艺术学院，该学院是现代建筑思想的重要中心。沙里宁前往教会与建筑委员会会面，该委员会成员包括米勒的母亲和他的叔祖父。当时20多岁的米勒负责招待设计团队中的年轻成员。

They included two people who would become giants of modernist design: Charles Eames, now best known for his iconic chairs, and Saarinen’s son, Eero, who would go on to design the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, among other projects. Miller and the younger Saarinen struck up what would become a close friendship. They often found themselves at Zaharakos, the Victorian ice cream parlor that still sits on Columbus’ main drag, debating architecture, and design. 

在设计团队的年轻成员中，有两位后来成为了现代主义设计巨匠：查尔斯·伊姆斯，如今因其标志性的椅子设计而广为人知；以及伊利尔·沙里宁的儿子埃罗·沙里宁，他后来设计了圣路易弧形拱门等项目。米勒和年轻的沙里宁建立了深厚的友谊。他们经常相聚在位于哥伦布市主干道上的、至今仍在营业的一家维多利亚风格的冰淇淋店Zaharakos，热烈讨论建筑，以及设计。 

Miller, whose family became wealthy through banking, real estate, and cornstarch refining, had studied at Yale and Oxford. In 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. When his uncle died the following year, the 35-year-old Miller returned to Columbus to lead Cummins, which was producing essential wartime engines for trucks, ships, and generators. 

米勒的家族通过银行业、房地产和玉米淀粉加工致富，他本人曾就读于耶鲁大学和牛津大学。1942年珍珠港事件后，他参军加入美国海军。次年，他的叔叔去世，35岁的米勒返回哥伦布市，接手领导康明斯公司。当时，康明斯公司正在生产战时必需的卡车、船舶和发电机的发动机。 

The decades that followed were boom times in Columbus. Construction of the interstate highway system and postwar industrialization helped propel Cummins’ growth. Under Miller’s leadership, the company built a reputation for what would come to be called “stakeholder capitalism,” the belief that corporate responsibility extends far beyond making money for shareholders. 

随后的几十年是哥伦布市的繁荣时期。州际公路系统的建设和战后工业化推动了康明斯公司的发展。在米勒的领导下，公司逐渐建立起了“利益相关者资本主义”的声誉形象，这种理念认为企业的责任远远超出为股东赚钱的范畴。 

Meanwhile, Columbus needed more schools, and it needed them quickly. The local school system estimated it would have to build a new elementary school every two years to keep up with local birth rates. But that didn’t mean it should sacrifice on style. Miller believed that quality education for the children of Cummins employees also required world-class buildings in which to learn. 

与此同时，哥伦布市需要更多的学校，而且需要尽快建成。根据当地教育系统的估计，为了跟上当地出生率的增长，每两年就需要建一所新的小学。但这并不意味着要在美学风格上妥协。米勒认为，要为康明斯员工的子女提供优质的教育，还需要配备世界一流的教学建筑。

To do that, Miller established a program at his company’s new foundation to pay top-tier architects to design the schools, as long as the school board chose an architect from a list the foundation provided. Many architects were early in their careers and would go on to achieve international renown. 

为实现这一目标，米勒在公司新成立的基金会中设立了一个项目，由基金会出资聘请顶尖建筑师来设计学校，前提是校董会需从基金会提供的名单中选择建筑师。这些建筑师中，许多人当时尚处于职业生涯的早期，后来则成为了享誉国际的知名人物。 

In 1957, the Cummins Foundation made its first grant to support the design of Lillian C. Schmitt Elementary School. Chicago architect Harry Weese, who would go on to design the Washington Metro subway system, was selected. The school, which is still in use today, is built around a central multipurpose room with a roofline that peaks over each classroom. It’s far different from the boxy off-the-shelf designs that were being built quickly and cheaply as schools across the U.S. 

1957年，康明斯基金会首次资助了莉莲·C·施密特小学的设计，选中了芝加哥建筑师哈里·威斯来负责设计。威斯后来设计了华盛顿地铁系统。这所学校至今仍在使用，其建筑围绕一个中央多功能教室展开建造，屋顶线在每个教室上方形成最高点。它与当时美国各地学校快速廉价建造地、四四方方的现成设计大不相同。

The Cummins program then broadened its architectural mandate to include any publicly owned and operated facilities in the county — libraries, fire stations, public housing, a golf course, even the county jail. 

随后，康明斯基金会的建筑项目扩大了其建筑使命范围，将县内任何公共拥有和运营的设施都包括了在内，如图书馆、消防站、公共住房、高尔夫球场，甚至县监狱。 

The program’s heyday, from the mid 1950s through mid 1970s, reflects the evolution of mid-century modern American architecture from spare “less is more” styles to more eclectic and playful postmodernism. But it continues today. A new elementary school is going up on the town’s west side. A high-design air traffic control tower is planned for the municipal airport. 

该项目的全盛时期是从1950年代的中期到1970年代中期。项目反映了世纪中期现代主义美国建筑风格的演变，从简约的“少即是多”风格到到更加折衷主义和俏皮的后现代主义。但这一项目至今仍在继续。哥伦布市西侧正在建设一所新小学，市政机场也计划建造一座高设计的空中交通控制塔。 

In the early days of the program, Miller was an outsize influence, says Schacht. “He made these decisions” about which of the era’s up-and-coming architects would appear on the foundation’s lists. But after presenting a list of around five architects to the school board or other public committee, the Cummins Foundation would step out of the way. It was a means to ensure that the people of Columbus, not the company, had the ultimate say. 

在项目早期，米勒的影响力非常大，吉姆·沙赫特表示：“他做出了这些决定”，关于哪些当时崭露头角的建筑师会出现在基金会名单上的决定。但在向学校董事会或其他公共委员会提交了一份约有五位建筑师的名单后，康明斯基金会会主动退出。这是一种确保哥伦布市民而非公司，拥有最终决策权的方式。 

“He may have contributed the most, but he always made room for others to be involved,” says Ben Wever, director of the Miller House, who was Mr. Miller’s caretaker for the last few years of his life. 

米勒之家的负责人本·韦弗说：“他（米勒）可能做出了最大的贡献，但他总是给其他人留出了参与的空间。”韦弗在米勒先生生命的最后几年中，一直担任他的看护人。 

When a school was designed, for example, kids were often asked to look at the models and offer feedback about what they liked. “He wanted everyone to be excited about design,” Wever says. “It was never ‘This is what I say, so it goes.’” 

例如，在设计学校的时候，孩子们经常被邀请来查看模型，并就他们喜欢的东西提出反馈意见。韦弗说：“他（米勒）希望每个人都对设计感到兴奋。他从来不会说‘这是我说的，就这么办。’” 

“Irwin knew he had so much influence that he always wanted to protect himself from exerting it,” the architect Harry Weese, who designed 14 buildings in Columbus, said in an oral history interview. 

曾在哥伦布市设计过14座建筑的建筑师哈里·威斯在一次口述历史访谈中说：“欧文知道他自己很有影响力，所以他总是想避免使用这种影响力。” 

But Miller’s influence did extend far beyond Indiana. While Columbus was getting increasingly built out, Miller was simultaneously establishing a national profile in his support of racial justice. 

但米勒的影响力远远超出了印第安纳州。当哥伦布市的建设日益完善时，米勒同时也在全美国范围内，树立了他支持种族公正的形象。

In 1960, he became the first non-clergyman to serve as president of the National Council of Churches. In that role, he worked on civil rights legislation with presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson leading up to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He also helped to organize the March on Washington with Martin Luther King, Jr. 

1960年，米勒成为首位担任美国全国教会理事会会长的非神职人员。在担任这一职务期间，他与约翰·F·肯尼迪总统和林登·B·约翰逊总统共同推动民权立法，最终促成了1964年《民权法案》的通过。他还与马丁·路德·金博士一起帮助组织了华盛顿大游行。 

A 1967 issue of Esquire featured Miller on its cover with the tagline: “This man ought to be the next president of the United States.” 

1967年《Esquire》杂志的封面上刊登了米勒的照片，并配上标题：“这个人应该成为下任美国总统。”

Miller died in 2004, and while his influence in Columbus loomed large, architecture critic Matt Shaw argues that the making of the town was bigger than the interests of one man. In his new book, American Modern: Architecture; Community; Columbus, Indiana, he refers to the town’s architectural development as a “total community project” — a collective effort that brought together many parties in pursuit of good design. 

米勒于2004年去世，尽管他在哥伦布市的影响力巨大，但建筑评论家马特·肖认为，这座小城的形成远不止是因为一个人的兴趣。在他的新书《美国现代主义：建筑、社区、印第安纳州哥伦布市》中，他将该城市的建筑发展称为一个“全面社区项目”。这是一个汇集多方力量、追求优秀设计的集体努力。 

The Cummins program and Miller’s elite taste inspired other companies and individual donors in the community to support high-design buildings and landscape architecture. The local newspaper, churches, and other businesses (several of which were also owned by the Miller family) saw value in prioritizing design. 

康明斯的项目和米勒的精英品位，激励着当地社区的其他公司和个人捐赠人，来支持高设计的建筑和景观设计。当地的报纸、教堂和其他企业（其中有几家也是米勒家族的企业）都看到了优先考虑设计的价值。 

“I’m particularly pleased that it’s a shared value and not just a something funders have imposed with their money,” says Will Miller, a member of the Cummins corporate board. 

康明斯公司董事会成员威尔·米勒说：“我特别高兴的是，这是一种共同的价值观，而不仅仅是资助者用他们的钱强加的东西。 ”

In addition, Shaw writes, “Architecture gave the community tools for thinking about other problems and established a tangible, social infrastructure that inspired others.” Other problems included efforts to bring residents together to improve community health. 

此外，马特·肖还写道：“建筑为社区提供了思考其他问题的工具，并建立了有形的社会基础设施，激励了其他人。”其他问题包括了通过工作将居民们聚集在一起，来改善社区健康。 

As Shaw reports, the Miller family had a saying, “spell, and let others pronounce,” to describe how philanthropy could shape an outcome while respecting community leadership. 

据肖的报道，米勒家族有句谚语，“你搭好台，让别人唱戏”，用来描述慈善事业如何在尊重社区领导的同时塑造结果。

Columbus’ story has inspired at least one other philanthropy to take a similar approach. When the Walton Family Foundation launched its Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program, which supports architecture and landscape design in the Bentonville area, program officers came to Indiana to learn from local leaders and cited the Cummins Foundation’s effort as a model. 

哥伦布市的故事激励了其他至少一家慈善机构采取类似的方法。沃尔顿家族基金会发起了“西北阿肯色州卓越设计计划”，来支持本顿维尔地区的建筑和景观设计。该项目计划的官员来到印第安纳州向当地领导人学习，并将康明斯基金会的努力作为榜样。 

(The Walton Family Foundation is a financial supporter of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.) 

注：（沃尔顿家族基金会是《慈善纪事》杂志的资金支持者。） 

Following Miller’s death, his family hired a consultant to help develop a plan to spend down the $25 million in their personal philanthropy, the Irwin-Sweeney-Miller Foundation. Much of those funds went to support downtown revitalization, including redevelopment of the futuristic Commons building, an indoor shopping and community space designed by César Pelli, renowned for designing some of the world’s tallest buildings. The funds also addressed challenges familiar to many small cities — like empty storefronts and lack of parking. Some money went to the Columbus Capital Foundation, an organization managed by the county’s community foundation that holds onto sensitive properties until the right use can be found. 

米勒去世后，他的家人聘请了一名顾问，帮助制定一项计划，以花掉他们的个人慈善基金（欧文·斯威尼·米勒基金会）里的2500万美元。这些资金大部分被用于支持哥伦布市中心的复兴，包括未来主义风格的Commons大楼的重建，这是一个由塞萨尔·佩利设计的室内购物和社区空间。佩利以设计世界最高建筑而闻名。这些资金还用于应对解决许多小城市正在面临的挑战，例如空荡的店面和停车位的不足。部分资金流向了哥伦布资本基金会，这是一个由县社区基金会管理的组织，负责在找到合适的用途之前保管敏感地产。 

That’s important at a time when Columbus is changing. A 2021 Wall Street Journal article called it one of the fastest diversifying small cities in the country, thanks to the roughly three dozen international companies that operate in the area. 

在哥伦布市发生变化的这个时期，这一点尤为重要。2021年《华尔街日报》的一篇文章称，哥伦布市是美国多元化发展最快的小城市之一，这要归功于大约三十多家在该地区运营的国际公司。 

One of the greatest examples of adaptive reuse is Eero Saarinen’s North Christian Church, a National Historic Landmark that’s one of Columbus’ most recognizable structures. With too few members to sustain the church, the congregation disbanded two years ago, donating the property to the Columbus Capital Foundation. This past summer the foundation donated the property to the local library to use as an event space. 

最具代表性的适应再利用案例之一，是埃罗·沙里宁设计的北基督教堂，这座国家历史地标是哥伦布市最具代表性的建筑之一。由于成员太少，无法维持教堂运营，教会在两年前解散，并将该物业捐赠给哥伦布资本基金会。今年夏天，该基金会将该物业捐赠给了当地图书馆，用作活动空间。

“A lot of people thought, and still think, we were crazy for even thinking of accepting this,” says Jason Hatton, director of the Bartholomew County Public Library System. But he sees it as an asset that can help push back on what purposes a building — and a library — can play in a town. “It’s just amazing to think that this will belong to the community for generations,” he says. 

巴塞洛缪县公共图书馆系统馆长杰森·哈顿说：“很多人认为，甚至现在仍然认为，我们考虑接受这个提议简直是疯了。”但在哈顿看来，这是一项能够推动建筑以及图书馆，在小城里发挥不同功能的资产。他说：“想到这座建筑将属于社区且世代相传，真是太棒了。” 

No matter its use, the building and its grounds remain important to architecture buffs. 

无论其用途如何，这座建筑及其庭院对于建筑爱好者来说，仍然非常重要。 

Each year, about 10,000 people take architecture tours through the Columbus Area Visitors Center, says Erin Hawkins, director of strategic partnerships and communications. Many others visit the town and its buildings on their own. 

哥伦布地区游客中心的战略合作与交流部主管艾琳·霍金斯说，每年约有1万人通过哥伦布地区游客中心参加建筑之旅。还有许多人自行参观小城及其建筑。 

But it’s difficult to measure the impact of the architecture on the town’s economy, Hawkins says. Compared to travel to Cummins and other local corporate headquarters, sports tournaments, and an Army training facility just north of town, she says, “architecture geeks are a pretty small niche audience when it comes to tourism.” 

但霍金斯表示，很难衡量建筑对小城经济的影响。与前往康明斯公司和其他当地公司总部、体育赛事以及小城以北的陆军训练设施的人流相比，霍金斯说：“对于旅游业来说，建筑爱好者只是一个相当小的细分受众。” 

One of the main sites of interest is the Miller House, J. Irwin and his wife Xenia’s Eero Saarinen-designed home with its grounds by Dan Kiley, one of the most influential American landscape architects. The centerpiece of the home’s open white-walled living room is an early example of a “conversation pit,” a sunken seating area lined with brightly colored seating, pillows, and carpeting. 

其中一个主要景点是米勒之家，这是J·欧文·米勒和他妻子泽尼娅的家，设计由埃罗·沙里宁完成。园林设计则出自美国最具影响力的景观建筑师之一丹·凯利之手。该住宅的开放式白墙客厅的中心，是一个谈话坑的早期范例。这是一个下沉式座位区，里面摆放着色彩鲜艳的座椅、枕头和地毯。

It was there that Miller, a trustee of institutions like the Ford Foundation, the Museum of Modern Art, and Yale University, would entertain fellow board members, along with contemporary philanthropists such as Peggy and David Rockefeller and guests like First Lady Lady Bird Johnson. 

作为福特基金会、现代艺术博物馆和耶鲁大学等机构的董事会成员，米勒会在谈话坑这里招待其他的董事会成员，以及像佩吉和大卫·洛克菲勒这样的当代慈善家，甚至还有像第一夫人莱迪·伯德·约翰逊这样的贵宾。 

In 2009, the Miller family donated the home and many of its original furnishings to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. 

2009年，米勒家族将这座住宅及其许多原有家具，捐赠给了印第安纳波利斯艺术博物馆。 

Upkeep of Columbus’ architectural legacy has presented challenges — and new opportunities for community engagement. 

维护哥伦布市的建筑遗产既带来了挑战，也创造了社区参与的新机遇。 

In the decades since most of the buildings went up, many have needed repairs. This has presented tough questions about how to fix an important building without modifying its original design. 

在大多数建筑建成后的数十年里，许多建筑都需要修缮。这带来了一个棘手的问题：如何在不改变其原有设计的情况下，修缮一座重要的建筑。 

“It became really apparent that we didn’t have a way to make that decision very well,” says Tracy Souza, who led the Cummins Foundation from 2000 to 2011 and now is CEO of the Heritage Foundation, the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County. Unlike many towns, Columbus doesn’t have a historical landmarks council to establish rules for managing cultural heritage. 

“很明显，我们没有办法很好地做出决定，”特蕾西·索萨说道。她曾在2000年至2011年间领导康明斯基金会，现任巴塞洛缪县社区基金会下属遗产基金会的CEO。与许多城镇不同，哥伦布市没有历史地标委员会来制定文化遗产管理规则。

In 2015, the community foundation launched an effort to ensure the town’s investments in design excellence remain a source of inspiration for future generations. Landmark Columbus Foundation became an independent nonprofit in 2019 and, since 2016, has put on a biannual program to celebrate the town’s modernist legacy. 

2015年，该社区基金会发起了一项工作，旨在确保该小城在卓越设计方面的投入，能够持续激励未来世代。哥伦布地标基金会于2019年成为独立的非营利组织，并自2016年起，每年举办两次活动，庆祝该小城的现代主义遗产。 

“Columbus has always been a place that raises bold ideas, and today we’re taking that tradition further, exploring how architecture, art, and design can reflect who we are and shape who we want to be,” Richard McCoy, Landmark Columbus’ executive director told the attendees. “Across the country, cities are grappling with the same questions, and we have a unique opportunity here to lead by example.” 

哥伦布地标基金会的执行董事理查德·麦考伊对参加活动的人们说：“哥伦布市一直是一个孕育大胆想法的地方，今天我们将进一步发扬这一传统，探索建筑、艺术和设计如何反映我们的身份并塑造我们想要成为的模样。在全美国范围内，各个城市都在努力应对同样的问题，而我们在这里有一个独特的机会，以身作则，引领示范。”