The Public Dialogue

By Jennifer Lau

From February 27 to March 1, 2013 at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California, Public Architecture convened leaders from government, design, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropy at the second annual Design Access Summit. Design Access is an opportunity for leaders within the aforementioned sectors to acknowledge the profound impact of the design of the built environment on human and environmental health, economic prosperity, and social justice, as well as to advance our collective ability to leverage the design of the built environment as a tool for social gain. Read more

This month Interface and Universal Fibers teamed up to support Public Architecture’s 1% program and designers who want to do meaningful work at work. Thanks to supporters like you, we’re more than halfway to our goal of $20,000—and we still have a week to go!

Between now and February 25^th, all you need to do is share, love, and retweet stories with the everyONE logo and/or hashtag (#IFeveryONE) to make the equivalent of a $2 donation to Public Architecture. With a simple click, you can help us show the world how everyONE in the design community can make a difference.

Check out the everyONE campaign images below for a dose of inspiration and the chance to help us expand pro bono design resources and opportunities. Whether one image stands out—or you love all six—simply click the images below to start sharing and help us reach our $20,000 goal!

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By John Peterson

This year Public Architecture turned ten years old.  As we continue to quietly work through this milestone, I thought I would share with you why each day I am both gratified by what we have achieved and humbled by what remains to be done.

I founded Public Architecture in response to the desire of myself and others in my private practice to do, simply, meaningful work at work.  We had a vision: empowering designers to not only conceive of solutions on behalf of clients but to identify and address challenges on behalf of larger communities.  Yet we soon realized that, unlike the legal and medical professions, the design community then had yet to establish industry-wide practices like pro bono to serve and impact those most in need.  In what sometimes seems like a moment of naïve enthusiasm, we created Public Architecture and programs like The 1% in an attempt to address this unmet opportunity, and here we are today.

Of course, to summarize the previous decade in a few sentences would be to understate the efforts of the many staff, volunteers, and Board members whose talents and hard work have been critical to our success.  Through their efforts and the commitment of likeminded designers, it is difficult to deny that our original vision—a world where designers could serve the public good through sustainable, scalable practices—is well underway.

Today, The 1% includes more than 1100 firms who have committed at least 1% of their billable hours to pro bono design services; more than 15,000 designers now provide a combined $42 million dollars’ worth of design services each year.  Both the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) are partnering with The 1% to encourage their members to be a part of this transformation.

I sometimes describe Public Architecture as a hundred year organization; in reality, longevity only hints at the scope of what we seek to achieve.  We know that the questions we need to answer will change and evolve over time as this practice continues to take hold.  Already, we have begun to move from “How can we get firms and designers to make pro bono a part of their practice?” to “How can we help firms and designers be more effective change agents in underserved communities?”  Yet the basic principles of our work remain the same.  Quality, scale, accessibility, sustainability—these values are core to what we do and to our vision for all communities across the nation.

If you have helped Public Architecture to be a better organization in the past ten years, thank you. If you are helping us to be a better organization now or in the future, thank you.

Consider supporting us through one or more of the following:

Make a donation
Public Architecture has learned to do a lot with a little, but imagine what we could do with even a small increase in funding. For every $1 donated, Public Architecture can leverage $60 of pro bono design services in communities across the country. Click here to make a donation.
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By Samantha Given-Dennis

Public Architecture’s Design Access Summit brought together government, design, nonprofit and funding professionals to better leverage the design of the built environment as a tool for social gain. Leaders in health care, education, affordable housing, transportation, community engagement, environmental sustainability, and the arts worked to collectively provide design services at scale to our most underserved and challenging problems.

Attendees represented an annual $10 million in pro bono design services, $1 billion in grants funded annually, and hundreds of millions of people served annually. Over the course of the summit, they discussed the impact of the built environment on our lives and our planet, new approaches and barriers to using design as a tool for social gain, strategies for working within resource constrained environments, service delivery innovation, and impact measurement.

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By Brad Leibin

Throughout history, one can find evidence that environment has a major role to play in improving public health outcomes. In the 19th Century, infectious diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis claimed millions of lives around the world before it was understood that environmental design measures such as aqueduct systems to supply cities clean drinking water, urban parks, revisions to building codes and zoning ordinances, and improved sewer systems (not medicine) were the most effective means to eliminate disease (i). Despite examples such as this, the importance of environment still too often goes overlooked by the healthcare industry as well as designers. Research done by the World Health Organization (WHO) has shown that many of the most pressing global public health issues of the 21st century are tied to environment. It is estimated that, currently, 24% of the global disease burden and 23% of all deaths can be attributed to environmental factors (ii). In its 2006 paper, “Preventing Disease Through Health Environments,” the WHO paints a picture of the negative impact that inadequate built environments, pollution, and climate are having on disease rates, particularly in the world’s poorest regions.

One might think healthcare facilities would be leaders in adopting sustainable building practices. But it appears, too often, that this is not the case. In United States the healthcare industry is the number one generator of waste (producing 3.4 million pounds, annually), the number two largest consumer of energy (spending $8.5 billion on energy, annually), and consistently ranked among the top 10 users of energy in any given community (ii, iii,iv). Not only does this wastefulness make healthcare more expensive and less accessible than it needs to be, it is makes healthcare a prime contributor to the environmental degradation that the WHO cites as a major causes of worldwide disease. In other words, the healthcare industry may actually be contributing to the spread of the illnesses it is trying to treat (iii). ^{Read more}