Jack Hess, President and Co-Founder of CivicLab, shared the remarkable story of one man’s architectural vision and the effect it has had on the landscape and civic life of Columbus, Indiana.

Hess presented one of the plenary session addresses at the inaugural Luminosity Conference, sponsored by the Presbyterian Foundation March 9 to 11, 2026 in Orlando. The conference was designed to offer pastors and church leaders inspiration and thoughts on innovation.

CivicLab teaches collaborative community teams how to approach complex social problems by redesigning the way they work together. Since its founding in 2012, the organization has served more than 300 communities across the country and trained more than 14,000 leaders and community stakeholders.

In the mid-20^th century, Columbus was a typical small Midwestern city, Hess said, with a looming problem: The Baby Boom. In 1950, Life Magazine had featured the city in an issue about such cities; the writer said the one word that best described Columbus was “average.”

“We were average at best,” Hess said with a grin. “Our city was very similar to many cities in the Midwest. And we had not built a new school in 22 years.” The first babies born after World War II were about to reach school age. “This was the greatest sea change this community would face. How we responded would say a lot about what our future would be.”

A man of faith takes action

Enter J. Irwin Miller, the scion of the Cummins industrial family business. Miller held a degree from Yale, but not in business or economics. He studied Greek and Latin, and then completed a master’s degree at Oxford University. A Renaissance man of sorts, he was a Bible scholar who served as the first lay president of the National Council of Churches. It was this background which became the foundation for renewal in his hometown.

After two new, identical, pre-fabricated schools began experiencing significant maintenance issues, Miller made the first proposal in what would become known as “The Offer.” If school officials would agree to solicit proposals from five well-known architects and choose one of them as the design for a new school, Cummins would pay for architectural design fees. Starting with school design was an intentional decision to focus on the constituency that was never at the table but most directly represents the future – the children.

“Miller had a two-fold problem,” Hess explained. “He needed talented engineers, executives, and other employees for his growing company, but he knew they would not move to where the schools were not good. He understood that family and education would be crucial to the Baby Boomers. He was also inspired by a statement from Winston Churchill: ‘We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.’”

Civic effort influences churches

The Offer has dramatically shaped Columbus in the decades since. More than 70 buildings have been designed by such renowned architects as I. M. Pei, Eero Saarinen, Eliel Saarinen, Harry Weese, and Kevin Roche. The program expanded beyond schools to other civic buildings, including the county jail. “We call that the jail test,” Hess said. “In Columbus, we believe in excellence for all. Our jail is a reflection of a commitment to restorative justice.”

While not eligible for The Offer, leaders of banks, manufacturing facilities, and colleges joined in the enthusiasm, choosing to follow the model of excellence in design and construction. Churches joined in the spirit of The Offer as well, also hiring renowned architects of the time, working to support the collective vision of the community, and showing how churches can join efforts of civic inspiration.

“So how did Miller’s Offer work out?” asked Hess. “I would say The Offer did indeed pay off in profound ways for Columbus.” The city was recently ranked first in the nation for the growth in the percentage of college graduates according to economist Richard Florida, and recorded a 62% increase in its diversity index – the highest in the nation as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The Offer, Hess said, validated what Miller asserted: “Every time any public building is built, that building is a statement to anyone who used it, anyone who passes by, as to what this city thinks about itself, what standards it sets for itself, what it aims to be.”

What made The Offer successful?

Hess shared several aspects of The Offer that were critical to its success:

• Conceived as a one-time offer to build a school, the vision functioned as a small seed; try it and see what happens.
• It was based on an existing model.
• The vision was a process, not a plan, that solved a company problem which benefited the entire community.
• It was “a resounding voice for democracy,” based on incentives rather than control. The final decisions were left to elected officials.
• It had no end point.

The next phase

By 2020, the community was not as engaged in architecture, but the desire for community improvement was still strong. The Offer, once a tangible statement of the power of the built environment to shape and improve a community, evolved into a question: What is this generation’s offer for the community going forward? The answer was found in turning from the physical environment, which continued to serve Columbus well, to the inspirational work of defining what kind of community it would become. Quest: Building America’s Best Community was born out of a commitment to excellence.

“We began with the idea of being America’s best small city, but the people said, ‘Why shouldn’t we be the best of all?’” Hess said. Through a series of wide-ranging and well-attended community input sessions, the process resulted in a set of values – “the standards we want to hold ourselves to.”

Quest Summits sought community involvement, including children, who were given the opportunity to write a letter to Santa telling him what they loved about the community. “Quest is not a vision but an invitation to answer these questions: What offer could you extend to future generations? What can you contribute to our Quest for Best?”

Community values

From that process grew a set of Community Values. Hess offered examples:

1. High Standards – Excellence should be the goal, as nothing is more expensive than mediocrity. To reach beyond individual taste for community excellence. Miller had said, “Excellence is a form of deviance.”
2. Different by Design – Good design and bad design cost the same, so go for the best.
3. The process is more important than the product, meaning and values must be embodied every day or they become meaningless.
4. An organization is only as healthy as the community to which it belongs. Show people that everything is possible in their area by sharing stories of successful neighbors.

“The Columbus Way is a particular way of working across the community to address needs.,” Hess said. “Every community has a way; they just don’t know they do. In Columbus we named it, shared it, and used it over time.”