The Alesari project originated with a senior/graduate-level special topics environmental design course at Kent State University. Design students in David Middleton's class teamed with architecture students from the Illinois Institute of Technology and real estate MBA students from The DePaul Real Estate Center in Chicago. Teams of students from each of the three schools worked together in several interdisciplinary groups during the 15-week course, via weekly videoconferences and two in-person group meetings at IIT.