Working together to engage questions of urban design, community engagement, and environmental sustainability, Pulitzer Arts Foundation and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts invited David van der Leer to draw on his extensive experience in the fields of design, art, and architecture for this lecture on the intricacy and complexity of cities. Now the Director of the Van Alen Institute, David van der Leer also developed and headed the curatorial team of the BMW Guggenheim Lab—a mobile laboratory that traveled to major cities worldwide and was led by international teams of architects, artists, urban designers, scientists, educators, and experts on the subject of sustainability.