June 2007
Dear Friends of Public Architecture:
Last Sunday's edition of The New York Times featured one of the many articles written over the past few weeks about the Design for the Other 90% exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. Public Architecture remains thrilled to have a full-scale section of our Day Labor Station featured in the exhibition, which has earned a great many mentions and a few brief profiles, such as one in The New York Sun newspaper.
While covered by literally dozens of major media outlets, ranging from the Times to Fox News, the exhibition has clearly gotten people talking. As of this writing after nearly a week of major news, the aforementioned Times article, "Design That Solves Problems for the World's Poor," remains one of the Times' "Top 10 Most Emailed Stories" and lingered at number one for the first few days--no small feat. The Times article also offered a video tour of a few select pieces as well as an interview with design entrepeneur Paul Pollak, founder of the International Development Enterprises.
For those who might not have the opportunity visit the exhibition, you can purchase the beautifully-designed publication cataloging the show and related writings. There is also now a dedicated exhibition website, which is well worth a visit.
John Peterson
Founder & Chair
Contents:
1. 1% Solution Welcomes Nine New Firm Pledges
2. Day Labor Station Project Update
3. Design for the Other 90% Exhibition Publication Now Available
4. Park(ing) Day 2007 Participants Wanted
5. Berkeley Prize Honorees Announced
6. Public Architecture in the News
7. What You Can Do to Support Public Architecture
1. 1% Solution Welcomes Nine New Firm Pledges
 Since our May 1 newsletter, Public Architecture has welcomed nine new firms to our 1% Solution program, bringing to 147 the total number of firms that pledged to date. Basil Walters Architects (New York, NY)
Charles Paul Goebel, Architect (Easton, MD)
Design Plus (Albuquerque, NM)
Hwai Yang Architects (St. Louis, MO)
John W. Thompson, Architect (Southport, NC)
LHB, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN)
RM Sovich Architecture (Baltimore, MD)
The Bourne Group (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands)
Wallace Roberts & Todd (Philadelphia, PA) Visit www.theonepercent.org/pledge to pledge your firm's 1% today.
2. Day Labor Station Project Update
 Since the opening of the Design for the Other 90% exhibition, we have received many positive responses from those who have visited the Day Labor Station. Our goal is to now identify a community in which to build the first complete prototype of the Station. We have recently been contacted by a wide range of organizations, from a leading national day labor organization to city councils to police departments. We are in conversation these new contacts, and we encourage anyone who has an interest in building a Day Labor Station in their community to contact Liz Ogbu at liz@publicarchitecture.org.
We would also like to recognize Public Architecture volunteers Margot Lystra and Phoebe Schenker, who together generated the one of our latest Day Labor Station renderings, which appears at right.
Visit www.daylaborstation.org for more information.
3. Design for the Other 90% Exhibition Publication Now Available
 The Design for the Other 90% publication, like the exhibition itself, explores more than 30 projects that reflect the growing movement among designers, engineers, students and professors, architects, and social entrepreneurs to design low-cost solutions for the at least 90% of the world's population that rarely has access to professional design. The book profiles efforts to improve access to food, water, shelter, health, education, energy, and other basic amenities that a great many of us take for granted.
The 144-page softcover book is printed on 100% Recycled Paper and available for $20.00 ($18.00 for Cooper-Hewitt Museum members). For ordering information or to learn more, click here.
 4. Park(ing) Day 2007 Participants Wanted
As we move into the summer, Public Architecture continues to work with REBAR in planning "Park(ing) Day 2007." Park(ing) Day is an event designed to call attention to call attention to the need for urban parks, reclaim the streets for bikes and people, and create new forms of public open space. This year's event will expand on these past successes and take this event to the next level. Through linking the temporary interventions Park(ing) Day with the permanent transformations of Public Architecture's long-awaited "Sidewalk Plazas," this event will become a vehicle for lasting change.
We are looking for companies, organizations, and individuals that are interested in participating. Visit www.parkingday.org to find out more information as well as to join the Park(ing) Day email list.
5. Berkeley Prize Honorees Announced
 Public Architecture was honored to have a hand in the Ninth Annual Berkeley Undergraduate Prize for Architectural Design Excellence, the winners of which were announced this past week. The Berkeley Prize promotes architecture as a social art through research, writing, and criticism--traditionally under-represented aspects of the architectural education and training. This year's Prize addressed the theme of "Making Social Architecture." To read the winnings essays, click here, and the winning travel fellowship proposals, click here.
This year's Berkeley Prize was dedicated to those groups and individuals around the world who have committed themselves to the application of the ideals of social architecture to built projects--many of which were profiled in Design Like You Give a Damn by Architecture for Humanity. AFH, Public Architecture, and a number of our peer organizations were profiled as part of the essay competition. Public Architecture's own John Peterson and Liz Ogbu served on the travel fellowship and essay competition juries, respectively.
Visit www.berkeleyprize.org for more information.
6. Public Architecture in the News
 In addition to the press coverage generated by the Design for the Other 90% exhibition and our Day Labor Station project launch, Public Architecture was featured in a range of other places during the month of May, including the video news clip at right and the following.
"Improving Public Spaces 1% at a Time" [View]
CBS 5, May 9, 2007
"Public Architecture:
San Francisco Nonprofit Challenges the Profession to Act for Social Change" [Read]
Architect, May 2007
"Face of the AIA; Doer's Profile" [Read]
AIArchitect, May 11, 2007
"Design for the Rest of the World" [Read]
The New York Sun, May 8, 2007
"Jefferson Award Presented to John Peterson" [Read]
San Francisco Chronicle, May 6, 2007
We would be remiss if we didn't mention that much of our recent press was no doubt due to the Herculean efforts of our new PR consultant Barbara Franzoia, whose good counsel we are very fortunate to have.
Click here for a complete listing of all Public Architecture 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.
|
|
