The Public Dialogue

By Jennifer Lau

This weekend we had the pleasure of attending the thirteenth annual Structures For Inclusion conference at the University of Minnesota College of Design. This year’s theme—“Dignifying Design”—was a fitting conclusion to the first ever Public Interest Design Week (#PIDWeek) and featured presentations by some of the most inspirational leaders in the field today, including many friends, colleagues, and former Public Architecture staff. Read more

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

The Public Interest Design Program at the University of Texas at Austin (UTPID) is a summer program that is supported by the Center for Sustainable Development within the School of Architecture. The primary aim of the Public Interest Design Program is to connect students from a myriad of disciplines interested in the relationship between public service and the built environment to projects that address real community needs. Through rigorous exploration of how each of these terms affects design, UTPID challenges students to develop theoretical and practical skills to respond to the ethical complications of engaging the public and its spaces.

The 2013 PID program offers three separate elements: a five-day student leadership summit held at the beginning of the summer, and two summer course options. Students interested in summer coursework can earn credit through a ten-week design/build practicum or a student research seminar measuring the social impacts of public interest design projects. The summit is not a prerequisite to the coursework.

Public Architecture will again be hosting students for the externship part of the research seminar summer coursework option. Student will spend 5 weeks learning the analytic techniques of post-occupancy analysis and then spend a second 5 week period collecting and interpreting data related to selected projects based out of our office in San Francisco. Students will author a report that adopts the SEED Network metric as a process and outcome evaluation tool, measures the degree to which there is a gap between intention and reception, and contributes new data to a growing body of empirical knowledge about the built world.

Applications are being accepted to the externship program until April 1, 2013. To apply, click here. For more information, visit www.soa.utexas.edu/csd/PID.

Public Architecture is pleased to release Kiva Headquarters, the second of an on-going series of case studies that feature projects by the American Institute of Architects members participating in The 1% program who are making pro bono service an integral part of design practice. The San Francisco-based international nonprofit, Kiva, has the mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. STUDIOS Architecture provided Kiva with a new workspace that supports both their mission and their culture within the constraints of a limited budget.

As a strategic alliance, Public Architecture is one of several organizations supporting the architectural profession that the AIA confers with to obtain and share information to assist members. Click here to find out more information on The 1% program and the AIA partnership. 

Are you an architect member of the AIA, but not a part of The 1% network that is making a difference? Join now.

If your firm already signed on to The 1% and you have been involved in a pro bono project, the AIA and Public Architecture would like to know more. Tell us about it!

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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The 2013 Call for Applications has been annouced by The American Architectural Foundation (AAF) for their Sustainable Cities Design Academy (SCDA).

SCDA connects project teams and multi-disciplinary sustainable design experts through highly interactive design workshops that help project teams advance their green infrastructure and community development goals.

Successful applicants will join AAF for one of two design workshops in Washington, DC:

June 5-7, 2013

September 11-13, 2013

To learn more and download the application, click here. Public-private partnership project teams are encouraged to apply.

To help support and advance good sustainable design practices, the American Architectural Foundation created the Sustainable Cities Design Academy (SCDA) in 2009. This initiative provides leadership development and technical assistance to local community leaders who are engaged in planning a sustainable building project in their community. Through SCDA, AAF seeks to educate, inspire, and support these local government, business, and community leaders and developers. SCDA also provides them with the resources and tools they need to develop long-term solutions for their communities.

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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The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and Public Architecture have partnered to support pro bono service for nonprofits seeking interior design expertise.

Through the new relationship, ASID and Public Architecture will encourage ASID members to pledge to The 1%, a nationwide program of Public Architecture that challenges architecture and design firms to commit a minimum of 1% of their time to pro bono service and facilitates a matching service to connect firms with nonprofits seeking pro bono design services. Read more

Missed Greenbuild but still looking for an easy way to support Public Architecture? Shaw Contract Group is continuing their Fight the Good Fight program online! Simply visit Shaw’s website to enter your name and email and to select Public Architecture as your nonprofit recipient, and Shaw will take care of the rest.

Through Fight the Good Fight, Shaw is continuing its longstanding commitment to social responsibility by donating one dollar per entry to one of three nonprofit organizations of your choice. We’re honored to continue working with Shaw, who has been a generous supporter of our Design Access Summit and a valued partner in The 1% Collection.

Don’t miss Architecture for Humanity’s Design Like You Give a Damn: LIVE! forum on community design and development on November 12-13, 2012 in San Francisco.

The two-day event includes innovative panel discussions, small-group workshops and a ‘Design Open Mic’. Design experts and enthusiasts, industry leaders across disciplines and more gather to address the collective challenges and lessons learned in humanitarian design and community development. AIA members can quality for eight learning unit hours.

Register today, we’ll be there!

For every person that visits their booth in the Exhibit Hall at Greenbuild, Shaw Contract Group will donate a dollar to one of three select nonprofits of the visitor’s choice. We are so excited that Shaw has chosen us to be one of the beneficiaries of this generous Greenbuild campaign.

Shaw has been a long time supporter of Public Architecture, most recently through the Design Access Summit and as a member of The 1% Collection.

If you are going to Greenbuild, head over to Shaw on the expo floor and select Public Architecture as your nonprofit of choice!

Greenbuild will be held from November 14-16, 2012 in San Francisco. For further information about the event, visit www.greenbuildexpo.org.

Please join us for an evening in celebration of community based design! On October 17, 2012, Cannon Design’s Open Hand Studio will partner with  Public Architecture to host its second Meet and Match event at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco.

Meet and Match is an opportunity for Bay Area designers and not-for-profit, community-based organizations to meet face-to-face and match design needs with design services. Through public interest design projects, designers and community members work together to transform their communities and occasionally even redefine the traditional designer/client relationship. At Meet and Match, you’ll have the opportunity to hear from Douglas Burnham of envelope A+D, designer of the proxy project in Hayes Valley; Paul Woolford of HOK, the firm behind San Francisco’s Mid-Market Revitalization team; and Beth Rubenstein of Out of Site, the nonprofit behind a community-designed parklet in Excelsior, about how their innovative and collaborative projects have transformed their communities.

Wed, October 17, 6-9 pm

6:00pm Cocktails
6:30pm Welcome and presentations
7:15pm Meet and Match networking session

Intersection for the Arts
5M Building, 925 Mission St #109

To register, please visit http://meetandmatch-sf.eventbrite.com.  Tickets are complimentary, space is limited, and our ability to learn about attendees prior to the event will help us identify potential matches in advance.  We look forward to seeing you there!