Prone to dogwood anthracnose here. Newer introductions have more strongly colored bracts, may not be as susceptible to disease.* Most kousa are shrubby trees, growing slowly but eventually quite a bit larger than 15' on many sites. Like other flowering dogwood branches cannot be cut back much without structure and beauty soon becoming seriously disrupted.

*There is supposed to be a genetic link between pink bracts and anthracnose susceptibility in kousa

Thanks for your input bboy. It sounds like it would be best to let a kousa just do its thing and is perhaps not the right plant for the location I'm thinking of. I'll just have to figure out where else to plant one. :)

One big foot note here " It's more important were you plant than what you plant"