The Public Dialogue

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.

In its humble beginnings around 2002, about a dozen firms took a leap of faith and made the first pledges to pro bono service through The 1%, among them Pugh + Scarpa [now Brooks + Scarpa], Tuck Hinton Architects, and Oglesby Greene. The 1% program grew out of Public Architecture’s realization that there were no formal mechanisms for supporting or even simply recognizing work in the public interest. While many designers are quite generous with their time, the profession as a whole had never encouraged pro bono service as a fundamental aspect of professional standing—or as an integral component of a healthy business model.

Last Tuesday, it was no small accomplishment for Public Architecture to announce a new partnership with the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Together, we will advance the pro bono design movement and encourage AIA members to join The 1% program. In 2007, the AIA generously donated a one-time, single-year grant of $115,000 that went towards developing The 1%’s online matching service. This time, the partnership is different and marks a noteworthy positive change. It moves our relationship from charitable to a true partnership, with each side invested to provide architects with the resources and support to encourage socially-responsible design.

Increasingly, we’re finding that 1% of a firm’s annual hours does not fully account for many firms’ pro bono contributions. The 1% requests that firms pledge a minimum of 20 hours per year per person, a number based on a 40-hour work week. Early results from The 1% Firm Survey in 2010, whose full results are due to be released soon, reveals that  77% of firms surveyed are contributing more than 1%, and 14% of that group report more than 10% of their annual hours were pro bono service contributions.  Many people will ask how that level of contribution can be a sustainable business model. Public Architecture is interested in that answer too, and will continue to build resources that share the experience of your peers in the fields of architecture and design.