Photo provided Mila Lipinski, now an architectural associate of the Duvall Decker architectural firm in Jackson, Mississippi, began her architectural career by serving on the original Exhibit Columbus High School Design Team in 2017.
Seeds that the Exhibit Columbus architectural exhibition watered several years ago are now growing to enrich the program’s present and future.
The new fifth cycle team of the program’s guiding curatorial partners has been announced and will be part of a local kickoff event June 26.
Moreover, the chair is a 25-year-old Columbus native who was a member of the original High School Design Team in 2017, and later an Exhibit Columbus intern and temporary staff member.
Mila Lipinski, now an architectural associate of the Duvall Decker architectural firm in Jackson, Mississippi, spoke with exuberance and gushing gratitude about the opportunity Wednesday afternoon. And she recalled with emotion in her voice how her work on the installation “Between the Threads” powered her passion to study architecture and to work in the field.
“I feel so very fortunate,” Lipinski said, speaking at the end of the workday. “Exhibit Columbus is such an incredible program. … Through it, early on, I got to see firsthand the difference that architecture makes.”
For example, she recalled passionately pushing for the installation’s colorful thread-like panels to hang above the ground so that parents could see their youngsters feet shod in footwear such as light-up sneakers happily and joyfully moving through the maze.
“For me, to be able to see all those kids’ feet — that was just really, really powerful,” she said. “It was great to be able to see something that I fought for in the design process actually come to life.”
Lipinski, a former longtime performer with Columbus’ Dancers Studio Inc., still speaks in a kind of artistic symbolism such as that. She earned an undergraduate degree in architectural studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and followed that by earning a master’s in architecture from Washington University in St. Louis. She has been at Duvall Decker for eight months and describes the experience as “phenomenal.”
She said that the firm regularly treats its design work “as an act of care for each particular community.” She mentioned that she first learned that concept with the Exhibit Columbus crew, headed by Richard McCoy, founding executive director of the umbrella agency Landmark Columbus Foundation.
She acknowledged that she had to be persuaded a bit to accept the chair role among the seven curatorial partners for the exhibition and symposium.
“This is an incredible opportunity for me to learn and to grow,” she said. “And I certainly appreciate the faith that Richard and the team have in me.”
McCoy mentioned first and foremost that the fact that Lipinski has local ties is a simple bonus.
“In everything that Exhibit Columbus does, we want to work with the very best,” McCoy said. “While Mila is from here, we most want to work Mila simply because she is excellent. That’s not a platitude. She fits what we’re trying to do in every conceivable way.”
Lipinski’s view of the Exhibit Columbus cycles is one appreciating a new perspective every so often.
“Every two years,” she said, “we all get this great opportunity to be re-introduced to Columbus and its architecture — and in the process, we also get re-introduced to each other and to our community.”
Launched in 2016 as a program of the nonprofit organization Landmark Columbus Foundation, Exhibit Columbus is an internationally-recognized exploration of community, architecture, art, and design that celebrates the modern legacy of Columbus. It does so through a two-year cycle of events that will take place via a symposium on Oct,. 24-25, installation design presentations on Feb. 21-22, and culminating in the exhibition from Aug. 15 through Nov. 30, 2025.
