JOSH LAPP, AICP

Josh is the Principal and Co-Founder of Designing Local with a focus on all things culture, from public art to historic preservation and beyond. He has led numerous projects around the country focused on preserving and expanding cultural ecosystems. This is expressed in a multitude of physical and policy improvements.

Project components that Josh has led have focused on multi-faceted issues from the bureaucratic — conceptualizing and implementing new funding streams and creating policy frameworks and guidelines to the physical — analyzing cultural infrastructure needs, facilitating artist selection and implementation, and preserving historic buildings. No matter the project the real end goal is almost always the same: delivering better cultural experiences for community members.

Josh has overseen more than 25 large-scale arts and culture planning initiatives across the country, developed broad public engagement opportunities for public art master plans and cultural plans, and managed more than 50 historic preservation projects including over 30 state and federal historic tax credits in Ohio and Kentucky — amounting to more than $70 million in investment in historic buildings alone. His broad knowledge of planning-related issues is frequently called upon to move cultural initiatives forward.

Key Project Types Include: