Blog Archive
Public Architecture invites the architecture community to join us in celebration of our new partnership with American Institute of Architects at the AIA National Convention in D.C. on May 17-19. The convention will be an opportunity to salute the nearly 400 architecture firms recognized for their pledge to pro bono service through The 1% program and their AIA and FAIA members on staff. Please join us at these planned activities. We hope to see you there.
Vincent James, Jennifer Yoos & John Peterson – In Conversation
ArchitectLive Booth 2039 – 5.17.12 at 10:40 am
Peterson interviews VJAA principals and AIA 2012 Architecture Firm Award recipients on their participation in Public Architecture’s The 1% Habitat initiative. ArchitectLive is the broadcast center for the AIA Convention.
Public Architecture & AIA – Partnership Toast
AIA Bookstore lounge – 5.18.12 at 2-3 pm
Raise a glass with John Peterson and Robert Ivy to celebrate a new partnership promoting The 1% program and AIA members making a positive impact on society.
RSVP samantha@publicarchitecture.org
John Peterson, Matthew Dumich, Cheri Gerou & Douglas L. Steidl – Leadership Forum
Room 102B – 5.18.12 at 4-5:30 pm
Jointly developed by the AIA Young Architects Forum and the AIA Center for Civic Leadership—this program features architects sharing stories about their paths to becoming recognized leaders in the profession and in their communities.
By Brad Leibin
With good friends and project co-lead CMG Landscape Architecture, Public was delighted to receive word earlier this week that our team has advanced to the third and final stage of the ‘Design Waller Creek’ competition in Austin, Texas. We will now be competing against the three other finalist teams: Michael Van Valkenberg Associates, Inc. and Thomas Phifer & Partners; Turenscape and Lake|Flato, Architects; as well as Workshop: Ken Smith Landscape Architect, Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, and Rogers Marvel Architects. Read more
By Amy Ress
The 1% Habitat initiative was born out of Habitat for Humanity’s desire to engage the design community to improve the design and construction process for their 1400+ affiliates across the country. Public Architecture saw this as an opportunity to advocate that quality design could further Habitat’s mission. Through The 1% program, we matched a select group of architecture firms, recognized for their residential design excellence and commitment to public service, to work with Habitat affiliates vetted for their building track record and enthusiasm to partner with designers to bring innovation to their plans. Together these teams are challenged to design and build a home that exceeds Habitat’s typical design and sustainability standards. Three of these partnerships are now underway to construction:
el dorado,inc and Heartland Habitat for Humanity
VJAA and Habitat for Humanity Detroit
Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects and Habitat for Humanity of the Mississippi Gulf Coast
Each project will be documented on The Public Dialogue as they go to build, starting with the Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects (MSME) and Habitat for Humanity of the Mississippi Gulf Coast (HFH MGC) project in Pascagoula, Miss.
By late January 2012, MSME and HFH MGC were quickly approaching the ground breaking on their collaboratively designed house in Pascagoula, Miss. “Everyone here is very excited to get started,” exclaimed Heidi Schattin, Sustainable Building Specialist at HFH MGC. The Habitat affiliate had received the building permit back from the local planning office with only a few minor red lines and the foundation work and pile driving was set to begin in early February.
Public Architecture is seeking a Development Manager to join our collaborative, growth-oriented organization. The Development Manager will advance Public Architecture’s institutional and corporate fundraising efforts and will work to implement the strategic vision of the Founder and President.
This position demands an entrepreneurial spirit, strategic mindset, and excellent communication skills with great opportunity for intellectual and professional growth in a dynamic, creative environment. For the full job description, visit http://www.publicarchitecture.org/about/Jobs.htm
Applicants are asked to send a cover letter, resume, and two writing samples (one PDF file preferred) to info@publicarchitecture.org with “Development Manager Application” in the subject line.
Please help us find the right candidate by sending this post out to your network — and consider applying yourself!
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.
Edited by Samantha Given-Dennis
Tobias Armborst, Daniel D’Oca, and Georgeen Theodore of Interboro Partners are pioneers working at the frontier of the architecture and urban design professions. Their firm embodies the expansion of architecture beyond its traditional boundaries and offers a model for designers to incorporate unfamiliar, underserved populations into their practice. They recently joined The 1% as the 1000th firm participant.
Public. What does Interboro do?
Dan. ‘We work at a port of entry for architectural possibility where the capacity for change rests in architecture’s ability to account for what exists, to recognize the limitations of a site and recast those limitations as an opportunity for intervention.’ Someone wrote that about us once. I think it’s a nice description of what we do. Read more
Originally published in Central City Extra San Francisco, No. 120 March 2012, a publication of San Francisco Study Center.
The faux wood floor is smooth, almost silky, a far better surface for the multipurpose room in the San Francisco Study Center’s new digs than the stained beige wall-to-wall carpet it replaced.
The flooring — 879.6 square feet of oak-colored Deco Advantage Luxury Vinyl Plank — came to Study Center free, thanks to an innovative online program that lets nonprofits match their design or renovation needs with architectural firms willing to pledge at least 1% of one employee’s annual billable hours to pro bono work. That averages about 20 hours a year.
In the last year, five other central city or mid-Market nonprofit projects have used the resources of The 1% program, which joined the latest public-private push to revive the grungy area on Market Street between Fifth and 10th in San Francisco.
The 1% idea is the brainchild of Public Architecture, a 10-year-old nonprofit at Eighth and Folsom streets. In six years, 571 nonprofits nationwide have searched for help and 1,011 architectural firms have made the pledge. Read more
Public Architecture is participating in this summer’s Public Interest Design Program at the University of Texas at Austin.
Public Architecture seeks two Summer Associates to work closely with and support Public Architecture’s fulltime professional staff of five.
Past projects led by our Summer Associates have varied widely, from conducting interviews about pro bono design with some of the country’s top architects to generating sustainability guidelines for participants in The 1% program and developing a program for material reuse within The 1%. The majority of the work will involve research, writing, and help with our outreach efforts. Once on staff, the Summer Associates play an integral role in moving forward many of our organization’s initiatives and are encouraged to participate as a full member of the staff. Read more
By Amy Ress
The 1% program reached two major milestones last week. They represent significant steps in our mission to institutionalize pro bono practice in the architecture and design professions.
Public Architecture is delighted to announce The 1%’s 1000th firm participant, Brooklyn-based Interboro Partners. We’ve been following the rise of this socially-engaging and innovative firm in recent years and couldn’t be more pleased to bestow this honor on the firm. Tobias Armborst, Daniel D’Oca, and Georgeen Theodore lead a forward-thinking office, doing architecture, urban design, and planning. They are most recently known for “Holding Pattern,” the 2011 winning design for MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program. Interboro’s team created a temporary playful summer environment by first asking groups in the community if there was anything they needed that Interboro could incorporate into the PS1 design. After determining the local community’s needs, the designers built the PS1 program using the requested elements. The project was de-installed four months ago and the components are now being donated back to the community.
“We’re thrilled to be part of The 1% program. Like most people here, we believe that architecture and planning should serve the public, and not just those who can afford the services that architects and planners provide” said Interboro Partners upon learning of The 1%’s 1000th firm designation. “Good, inclusive architecture and planning–especially in the form of public space–is an important ingredient in a democracy. With this pledge, we continue our mission of serving neglected and underserved populations. It’s heartening to know that there are 999 others out there like us!”
Interboro Partners joins a network of architecture and design firms (now 1006) contributing over 300,000 hours of pro bono design services to communities in need, valued at nearly $40 million annually. Read more
The agreement was signed by Robert Ivy, Executive Vice President/Chief Executive Officer of the AIA and John Peterson, Founder and President of Public Architecture.
Public Architecture is pleased to announce the launch of a new partnership with the American Institute of Architects that will encourage AIA members to commit a minimum of 1% of their time to pro bono service. Read more
Increasingly the best champions for Public Architecture and The 1% program are the designers and nonprofits who put design to use every day. In recent months I have had several opportunities to watch our 1% participants share their projects with remarkable passion and dedication. With the pressures of growing an organization it seems that I sometimes forget just how important this work is for professionals and the people we serve.
Our members’ commitment, in what is still a very challenging economic climate, gives me incredible optimism for the future of design’s ability to meet the most pressing needs of our communities. In 2011, we saw more designers than ever join us to seize this opportunity. The 1%, which asks architecture and design firms to pledge one percent of their billable hours to pro bono service, grew to almost 1,000 firms dedicating $38 million to more than 500 nonprofits across the country.
In March, we launched The 1% Design Advocates, a national initiative for exemplary design firms to foster pro bono service in their community through local outreach events. Our pilot project with affiliates of Habitat for Humanity kicked off with innovative designs from across the country to prove that homes of very high environmental and design quality are within reach of Habitat’s clients.
In 2012, you will see us build on our programs and activities from 2011. In March, we will host Design Access, a summit of leaders from design, government, and the social sector, to create an actionable agenda to improve the way we use design as a tool for social change. We will re-launch The 1% platform to make it more flexible, powerful, and inclusive. These and our many other initiatives will be covered on our new media platform, The Public Dialogue.
Just as we are only as strong as the stories told by individual designers and nonprofits across the country, our impact is only guaranteed by the commitment of people just like you. Please join us by making a gift that supports the power of design to change people’s lives.
Click here to donate to Public Architecture.
Thank you in advance, and have a joyous holiday season.
Sincerely,
John Peterson
Founder and President
Public Architecture
Public Architecture is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in San Francisco. It engages architecture firms, nonprofits, and manufacturers to commit to design for the public good through its nationally recognized 1% program; it acts to bring about positive community change through public-interest design initiatives and pro bono design service grants; and it shares the potential of design to change the world through advocacy and outreach.
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The 1% Program
The 1%, a program of Public Architecture, connects nonprofits with architecture and design firms willing to give of their time pro bono.
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