Peter Kageyama

For the Love of cities

Peter Kageyama is an urbanist and bestselling author of four nonfiction books on cities and placemaking. His first book, For the Love of Cities, was recognized as a Top 10 Book in Urban Planning and Development. He speaks all over the world about better placemaking that emphasizes small, inexpensive, and fun approaches to city building. He was a Senior Advisor to the Alliance for Innovation, a national network of city leaders, and is a special advisor to America in Bloom. In 2023, St. Petersburg Press published his first novel, Hunters Point. The work of historic fiction draws upon the wartime experiences of his father and his Japanese family. The sequel, Midnight Climax, was published in early 2024. In his spare time Peter is an avid board gamer, comic book geek and classic rock nerd. He lives in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida with his wife, award winning architect Lisa Wannemacher and their dog Dobby.

Frank Starkey

People-places

Trained as an architect, People Places Founder Frank Starkey knows how to blend aesthetic design and technical considerations into delightful, human-scaled buildings and outdoor spaces. Under his guidance, People Places is a company with a mind for business, the guts for entrepreneurship, an eye for design, and a heart for people. Frank Starkey holds undergraduate and professional degrees in Architecture and Urban Design from Rice University, is CNU (Congress for the New Urbanism) Accredited, and a member of Congress for the New Urbanism, The American Institute of Architects, Urban Land Institute and Leadership Florida.

Steve Mouzon

The Original Green

Steve has led or contributed to many advances in sustainable place-making and building design. He co-founded the Urban Guild, which is a group of architects, designers, and other New Urbanists dedicated to sustainable buildings and places native to and inspired by the regions in which they are built. The Guild was instrumental in the creation of the Katrina Cottages concept. Steve’s Katrina Cottage VIII, which opened the second generation of Katrina Cottages, was awarded a Charter Award by the Congress for the New Urbanism. The Project:SmartDwelling initiative sets out to redefine the American home much smaller, smarter, and more sustainable. Steve’s SmartDwelling I was featured in the Wall Street Journal’s Green House of the Future story alongside designs by three other notable green architects.
Steve is also a principal of Mouzon Design, which produces a number of town-building tools and services. Steve is Town Architect at several new hamlets, villages and neighborhoods around the country, using a unique face-to-face method of design review he developed that many agree is the most effective in use today. Several of his projects are award-winners.
Steve began the Original Green initiative, with the goal of recovering and advancing patterns of sustainability that kept humanity alive until the Thermostat Age and the emergence of Gizmo Green. Steve’s book, the Original Green, frames sustainability in common-sense, plain-spoken terms. Bobby Kennedy, Jr. wrote the Foreword. Steve has collaborated repeatedly with other notables, including Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk of DPZ and the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, which is King Charles’ organization.

Kemp Brinson

Just laugh
Arts communities in Focus

Kemp, a North Carolina native and NC State grad (Go Wolfpack!), lives in Winter Haven. He is an employment law attorney with Reed Mawhinney & Link in Lakeland. He moonlights as a bassist, having performed in the pit orchestra for about 50 musical theater productions at Theatre Winter Haven over the past 20 years. Recently, he took up filmmaking, and his first short film, Just Laugh, has been accepted at eight film festivals in seven states (so far): Arizona, Ohio, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, and two in Florida. Kemp serves on the Board of the Polk Arts and Cultural Alliance and is the Chairman of the Board of Central Florida Health Care. He is already planning his next filmmaking project, a documentary chronicling his brother’s efforts to start an environmentally-friendly oyster farm in eastern North Carolina.