Keynote: Mark Bacon, AIA

Mark Bacon, AIA, delivered a compelling keynote session, “The Generous Middle: Amplifying Equity in Unexpected Places,” at the AIA Colorado Practice + Design Conference, showcasing how architecture can amplify equity and dignity in overlooked regions like Nebraska. Often dismissed as “flyover states,” the Midwest’s vast landscapes, hay bales, and endless horizons inspire empathetic, restrained design rooted in connection and care. Nebraska’s slogan, “It’s not for everyone,” humorously reflects its understated appeal, which Bacon argued holds immense potential for meaningful architecture. 

Bacon illustrated this philosophy through several projects. The Niobrara Valley Preserve visitor center, located 16 miles from the nearest paved road, blends into its environment with COR-TEN louvers that subtly move in the wind and charred cedar cladding harvested on-site. He shared the story of Bumper the bison, whose resilience mirrors the spirit of the region. Sandy Creek Public School reimagines traditional classrooms as flexible, activity-based environments inspired by modern workplaces, fostering partnerships with local industries like agriculture and healthcare. 

The Columbus Community Building serves as a civic hub, combining a library, city hall, and children’s museum under one roof. Its “front porch” design invites interaction, embodying generosity through shared space. Similarly, the Chadron student housing project uses simple materials and thoughtful design to create a sense of belonging for students on the edge of campus, with glowing gable ends serving as beacons of security. 

Bacon also discussed the adaptive reuse of Lincoln’s Central Library, transforming a concrete mall into an extroverted civic space with mass timber construction, rooftop terraces, and a pavilion for community events. The Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) in Kearney, a 2025 AIA Colorado Design Award of Excellence project, bridges past and present, incorporating mass timber and local materials to honor the state’s agrarian heritage. Its redesigned sculpture garden and ceiling geometry, inspired by migrating sandhill cranes, reflect the interplay between permanence and transformation. 

Throughout the session, Bacon emphasized listening deeply to communities, designing with empathy, and elevating the familiar into the profound. He celebrated the latent energy of the “generous middle,” where architecture amplifies equity and dignity in unexpected places, leaving behind enduring spaces that connect people and elevate their expectations.

Restraint as Aesthetic and Ethical Practice

Architectural restraint should be viewed not as limitation but as empathy made visible, where careful editing and material choices demonstrate care for community and context rather than designer ego.

Restraint as care. So in a world obsessed with more and more and more and more try to edit, edit, edit, and making sure that restraint isn’t seen as absence, but more empathy made visible. And that quiet clarity which makes our work endure.

Equity as Everyday Design Practice

True equity in architecture comes through consistent daily practice rather than slogans, ensuring every community deserves to be listened to and receives design that lasts and elevates their dignity and pride.

So really, equity as everyday design, not necessarily as a slogan, but as practice, something we continue to refine and do and do over and over again. So the generous middle reminds us that every community we design in deserves to be listened to, to make sure that it lasts and to make sure that it lifts right, brings their expectations up, their pride.

The Generous Middle as Design Philosophy

The ‘generous middle’ represents both a geographic and philosophical approach to architecture that values presence over spectacle, emphasizing empathy, care, and craft rather than attention-seeking design.

So this is what we call the generous middle, an invitation to experience the unexpected, a way of practicing architecture rooted in empathy. And here, architecture isn’t about spectacle, it’s about presence.

Listening Over Authorship in Design Process

Successful architecture begins with deep listening rather than immediate design solutions, prioritizing understanding of place, people, and stories before sketching the first idea.

And listening over authorship, trying to begin every project not by sketching the first idea that comes to our mind, but listening first, connecting the people to the place and the stories beneath the surface. And we think that’s when the best design happens.

Adaptive Reuse as Community Transformation

Transforming existing buildings from introverted to extroverted spaces can revitalize civic life, as demonstrated by converting a closed mall into an active library that engages with street life and community needs.

And our idea was to take an opaque building, not participating in any sort of civic life, and open it up to the street level and connect you to the rooftop and really turning the buildings inside out, making it go from an introverted to an extroverted building.

Connection Over Isolation in Architectural Planning

Rather than creating perfect isolated objects, architecture should focus on relationships and connections between people, programs, and communities to become an extension of the community itself.

And that idea of connection over isolation. So not trying to create perfect objects, but more about the relationship and the connection between them, between people, programs and communities. And when we design for that connection, we think that our architecture becomes an extension of those communities.

Subverting Low Expectations Creates Opportunity

When expectations are low due to location or context, architects have greater freedom to exceed expectations and create meaningful impact by elevating both client and community aspirations.

People expect little from the middle. And when expectations are low, that’s when our possibilities increase, because these are moments when we have to lift our own expectations, because we may not be having high expectations placed on us.

Making the Invisible Visible in Museum Design

Breaking traditional museum hierarchies by making typically hidden spaces like art storage and preparation areas visible to visitors creates new opportunities for engagement and education about curatorial processes.

But we were actually able to invert that logic and make what is typically invisible visible. And those art prep spaces, the art storage, because like most museums, they have way more in the collection than they can actually exhibit. But this becomes a moment where you can actually see their collection and see how they’re curating the next show.

Flexible Learning Environments Replace Traditional Classrooms

Modern educational architecture should mirror contemporary workplaces rather than conventional classrooms, using movable furniture and open collaboration studios that allow students to define their own learning environments.

This cutting edge technology blends the flexible environments to create an atmosphere closer to a modern design studio rather than a traditional classroom… none of the class, most of the classrooms were not defined by four walls and a door.

Place-Based Material Selection Builds Authenticity

Using local materials creates emotional connections beyond mere aesthetics, with choices like on-site harvested cedar or colors matching local wildflowers demonstrating deep respect for place and context.

There’s local, familiar materials that. Not just about the material itself, but the emotion that they evoke… even trying to match the color of paint to the wild flowers that grow throughout the sandhills, just giving a nod to its place.