July 2007
"If there is one big idea taking shape in the architecture and design world right now, it's a new strain of humanitarianism. Socially conscious and globally minded, the sensibility is best understood as a thread. It connects green architecture, disaster relief, and antipoverty programs, which are engaging many of the profession's top talents--especially those younger than 40."
So begins a July 4 article by Los Angeles Times writer Christopher Hawthorne. The article is the latest coverage of the "Design for the Other 90%" exhibition, and the author’s notes about our Day Labor Station project are excerpted below. Our observation is that the quote above applies even more broadly to a growing number of firms, nonprofit organizations, individuals, and projects throughout the design fields. Among them are the more than 150 firms that have pledged their time through our 1% Solution program.
On the brink of the program's Phase Two rollout in the weeks ahead, the 1% Solution reached two new milestones this past month. We welcomed our 150th firm, Tighe Architecture of Santa Monica, Calif., on our way to a current total of 159 firms. The tally of hours pledged annually via TheOnePercent.org website also topped 50,000 hours this past month. Thank you for helping us realize these two milestones and stay tuned.
John Peterson
Founder & Chair
Contents:
1. 1% Solution Welcomes 10 New Firms, Tops 50,000 Hours
2. Day Labor Station Wins Spark! Award
3. Vote for Public Architecture Project on Design21SDN.com
4. Aspen Ideas Festival Content Available
5. Upcoming Presentations
6. Public Architecture in the News
7. What You Can Do to Support Public Architecture
1. 1% Solution Welcomes 10 New Firms, Tops 50,000 Hours 
Since our June 1 newsletter, Public Architecture has welcomed 10 new firms to our 1% Solution program, bringing to 159 the total number of firms that have pledged to date. Bower Lewis Thrower Architects (Philadelphia, PA)
Brawer & Hauptman, Architects (Philadelphia, PA)
Casler Design Group (Cincinnati, OH)
Field Paoli Architects (San Francisco, CA)
SMP Architects (Philadelphia, PA)
thinkSMART planning (Mesa, AZ)
Terra Studio (Philadelphia, PA)
Tighe Architecture (Santa Monica, CA)
Viridian Landscape Studio (Philadelphia, PA)
Volume (San Francisco, CA) Boor Bridges Architecture (formerly Bridges Architecture) of San Francisco has also updated its profile, noting its name change.
Note: Please be advised that the 1% Solution program website is presently undergoing a major overhaul, and that the new project upload mechanism has been disabled in anticipation of this upgrade.
Visit http://www.theonepercent.org for more information.
2. Day Labor Station Wins Spark! Award
 The Day Labor Station, a project of Public Architecture, was announced in June as a recipient of one of the first-ever Spark! Awards. Conferred by a 15-person multidisciplinary jury, the award levels start with Bronze, rising through Silver and Gold to the ultimate, the Spark! Award. The awards were announced and presented June 9 during an evening reception at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif.
A bold new competition, Spark! seeks to engage design in a manner relevant to the times in which we live, embracing process, strategy, integration, aspiration, collaboration, sustainability, and other 21st Century concerns.
Visit http://www.sparkawards.com for more information.
3. Vote for Public Architecture Project on Design21SDN.com
 Design21: Social Design Network is an online network committed to inspiring social activism through design. It seeks to link organizations and people as well as to highlight projects that explore the way in which design can be a vehicle for change.
The Technology Access Foundation (TAF) 21st Century Community Learning Center--a project in the Seattle-area that Public Architecture has undertaken with The Miller|Hull Partnership (a 1% Solution firm), King County, and TAF--is presently one of three projects featured prominently on the Design21 homepage. Incorporating state-of-the-art technology, environmental consciousness, and community participation, the project will be a beacon of environmental and social sustainability.
The site welcomes "votes” for each Featured Project. Registration is free and simple as well as required in order to vote.
Visit http://www.design21sdn.com for more information.
4. Aspen Ideas Festival Content Available
 Over the past few days, July 4-8, Public Architecture's executive director, John Cary, was among 25 social entrepreneurs from around the world selected to attend the second session of the Aspen Ideas Festival as an "Ideas Fellow." This annual conference of the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic magazine unites world leaders and thinkers, including the likes of Madeleine Albright, Lance Armstrong, Bill Clinton, Diane Feinstein, Ben Heineman, Bill Gates Sr., Dana Gioia, Alan Greenspan, Colin Powell, Karl Rove, Cameron Sinclair, and numerous other corporate executives, heads of state, and media leaders. The 15 program tracks ranged from "Arts & Culture" to "Business & Society," "Global Health," and "The State of the Environment."
Participants commit to circulating the ideas and discussion generated by the event to their constituents, and this notice is our effort to make good on that promise. Click here for 2007 audio and video clips on the Ideas Festival website. Click here for daily blogs on The Atlantic website. Over the coming months, additional content will be published via the Aspen Institute websites, YouTube, and other media.
Visit http://www.aifestival.org for more information.
 5. Upcoming Presentations
July 11, 2007
Catholic University of America | Washington, DC
Invited lecturer
August 2-5, 2007
IV Convención Nacional de Jornaleros y Jornaleras
Convention of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network | Silver Spring, MD
Invited presenter
Click here for a complete list of presentations.
6. Public Architecture in the News
[Read]
"At Cooper-Hewitt, 'Design for the Other 90%' thinks globally"
Los Angeles Times, July 4, 2007 "Perhaps the most intriguing project, especially for anybody visiting the Cooper-Hewitt from California, is the Day Labor Station, designed by the San Francisco firm Public Architecture. It is an open-air shelter offering shade, seats and even a basic kitchen to day laborers while they wait to be picked up by an employer. It is designed to be installed in parks, along streets and in front of home-improvement stores.
As the immigration debate continues to boil, the project makes a controversial claim: that the most humane way to respond to the growing numbers of day laborers on our street corners and in our Home Depot parking lots is with a gesture of architectural permanence--or semipermanence, anyway. Stylishly arranged from mostly sustainable materials, it is sure to raise the hackles of the Lou Dobbs set." [Read]
"A Display of Talent"
Metropolis, June 2007
Click here for a complete list of press.
 7. What You Can Do to Support Public Architecture
Click here for 10 ways to contribute to our work.
Established in 2002, Public Architecture identifies and solves practical problems of human interaction in the built environment and acts as a catalyst for public discourse through education, advocacy, and the design of public spaces and amenities. Visit www.publicarchitecture.org for more information.
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