Public for All: Rethinking Shared Space in NYC

Since our founding in 1995, the Design Trust has solicited project proposals from government agencies, nonprofit organizations, community groups, and individuals through an open Request for Proposals (RFP).After three years since our last RFP—The Energetic City—and four projects later, on April 25, 2017, we unveiled Public for All: Rethinking Shared Space in NYC, an open call for project ideas to ensure New York City’s public realm remains truly public. The Design Trust seeks innovative ideas for creating more accessible, resourceful public spaces and sustainable models for their operation and maintenance to strengthen the voice of communities and enliven neighborhoods.

In today’s political climate, we must affirm and ensure that New York City’s public realm provides places of refuge and play, congregation and demonstration, and dialogue and exchange. Keeping these spaces thoroughly public poses challenges and opportunities at every turn—be that site selection, funding, design, governance, or operations. The Design Trust for Public Space—the nonprofit that jumpstarted the High Line, pioneered a model Community Design School in Queens, helped bring about New York’s first custom-built Taxi of Tomorrow, and developed the sustainability guidelines that paved the way for PlaNYC—is dedicated to catalyzing public space to better serve people, and create a vibrant and sustainable city.

We invite NYC community groups, City agencies, and individuals across the five boroughs to submit proposals for research, design, and planning projects to unlock the potential of NYC’s shared spaces, including underutilized and under-resourced community assets. Projects may be site-specific but must have the potential to change the way we develop and manage public space citywide. Project selection is a two-step process, beginning with a short online expression of interest due June 6, 2017, and full proposals due June 20, 2017. See the application guidelines for further information.

An independent jury will choose up to two proposals in mid-July to be developed and executed with the Design Trust. Our highly collaborative model will connect project partners with Design Trust staff, a team of Fellows, and community collaborators. The jury includes: Kitty Hawks, Kitty Hawks Interiors, Design Trust Founder’s Circle; Walter Hood, Hood Design Studio; Patti S. Lubin, Office of U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand; Kerry A. McLean, Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation; Zack McKown, Tsao & McKown Architects, Design Trust Board [non-voting]; Justin Garrett Moore, NYC Public Design Commission; José Serrano-McClain, NYC Mayor’s Office of Tech + Innovation; Claire Weisz, WXY Architecture + Urban Design, Design Trust Founder’s Circle; and Andrea Woodner, Design Trust Founder and President Emeritus.

Public For All is made possible by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and with support from the Design Trust Founder’s Circle, including Hugo Barreca, Agnes Gund, Kitty Hawks, Sophia W. Healy, Camila Pastor and Stephen Maharam, Claire Weisz, and Andrea Woodner.

Additional support for the Design Trust is provided in part by the New York State Council on the Arts and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.