Public Architecture
leverages the built environment
for social good.

1+ is the flagship program of Public Architecture
It connects nonprofits with pro bono architecture and design services. The first and largest pro bono service network within the architecture and design professions, 1+ challenges the design community worldwide to dedicate one percent or more of working hours to pro bono service.

Why pro bono design?
Pro bono design serves a critical need for nonprofits with unmet environmental and facility needs. Design is a wholly underutilized tool for achieving social outcomes.

Nonprofits
1+ is open to nonprofits from healthcare, arts and culture, animal welfare and every other sector to tell their stories, document their design needs, and find design firms willing to give their time. Exceed your project expectations. What are you waiting for? Join now.

Designers
1+ offers all designers of the built environment, including architects, engineers, landscape architects and interior designers, an opportunity to document their pro bono contributions, gain recognition, and find project opportunities. Be a part of the pro bono movement. What are you waiting for? Join now.

Program:
CITIES+

Funder:
Knight Foundation

Locations:
San Jose, CA; Detroit, MI

Collaborator:
Clinton Global Initiative

Our role:
6-10 inaugural participating cities, each matched with designers to partner on 3-6 projects annually over 3 years; 2018 launch the 1+ matching system for government agencies

Public Architecture’s 1+ program is the world’s largest pro bono design marketplace, connecting nonprofits with over $60MM of pro bono design services annually. The program is made up of over 1500 firms represented by 18,000 architects, city planners, landscape architects, and other designers of the built environment who are committed to pro bono service for communities in need.

As a commitment of our Clinton Global Initiative membership, Public Architecture is creating CITIES+. This program will direct pro bono design services within the 1+ program as a tool for government initiatives. CITIES+ brings millions of dollars of pro bono design services already recruited in the 1+ program to propel great ideas, determine their feasibility, and develop actionable approaches to advance civic projects in their early stages. The program connects government leaders with appropriate design firms to help flush out early stage project ideas that might otherwise not be pursued. Once an idea is green-lighted as a fundable “project,” the pro bono services would be concluded.

The City of Detroit, MI and City of San Jose, CA are the first CITIES+ members to participate through the support of the James L. Knight Foundation. The 3-year study period is designed for up to ten cities. At the conclusion, an online platform will launch with the goal to become a long-term, high impact tool for positive civic outcomes for decades to come.

Location:
Sausalito, CA

Years:
2012, 2013, 2014

Past partners:
Ford Foundation
Shaw Contract Group
Teknion
Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction
Humanscale
Cannon Design
Perkins+Will
HomeFed Corporation
HKS Architects

Design Access focuses on convening professionals from diverse sectors and building productive relationships between attendees and their respective organizations. Participants share their skills, experiences, and goals to build multidisciplinary assets specific to social innovation.

This is not a traditional conference. There are no keynotes; Design Access is invite-only and everyone at this gathering is an expert in his or her field. The summit offers participants an opportunity to build their professional relationships, to collaborate on impactful projects, and to examine complex issues from new perspectives.

Project:
Firehouse Clinic

Client:
California HealthCare Foundation

Location:
Alameda, County, CA

Partners:
Health Care Agency (HCSA) of Alameda County, Mende Design, WRNS Studio, GLS Landscape | Architecture

Recognition:
By the People: Designing a Better America, Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, 2016

Links:
Alameda County Firehouse Clinic video

The goal of Firehouse Clinic (FCs) is to develop more accessible models of health care provision by co-locating medical clinics on the grounds of existing fire station sites, thus leveraging existing assets like well-known locations, underutilized space, and the public’s trust. 

Public Architecture’s first stage of work was to develop guidelines to help the Agency identify a focus set of high-priority fire station sites, out of approximately seventy located across Alameda County. In addition to outlining spatial requirements for the sites, these guidelines helped the agency assess costs and  as well as the architectural implications (related to visibility, security, circulation, and visual identity goals) of co-locating FCs at specific sites.

Our second stage of work focused on understanding the short-listed sites in relationship to their demographic and existing health care contexts. This information was compiled into a series of reports tailored to each of the six municipalities (Oakland, San Leandro, Fremont, Newark, Hayward, and Union City) in which the sites are located. The reports show physical proximity of shortlisted sites in each municipality to target populations, the physical constraints and opportunities associated with co-locating at each, as well as information about the health needs of the surrounding populations. They serve as a tool to solicit the support and insights of city councils, stakeholders, and community members during the site selection process and beyond.

Public Architecture approached WRNS Studio to provided services pro bono to design a clinic prototype, including a conceptual design and set of guiding principles for a 1,200 square foot clinic adjacent to a firehouse.  GLS Landscape | Architecture designed pro bono the surrounding wellness gardens that will be visible from within exam rooms. The Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center in Hayward opened in 2015, and it is the first FC in operation.

Project:
ScrapHouse

Client:
World Environment Day

Location:
San Francisco, CA

Partners
Jensen Architects/Jensen & Macy Architects, Interstice Architects, CMG Landscape Architects, Mende Design, Design at Noon, Matarozzi Pelsinger Builders, Patrick Buscovich & Associates, Shift Design Studio, AP Lighting, Melinda Morrison Lighting, and a team of builders, engineers, city officials and artists

Deliverable:
Design and build a temporary demonstration house constructed entirely from waste

In the area of environmental sustainability, it is evident that the building and construction industry makes a significant impact, particularly in terms of waste. Construction and demolition waste accounts for over 100 million tons disposed in U.S. landfills annually, representing almost one-third of the total amount of municipal solid waste produced. This is an issue in which the design community can play a major role.

Built in conjunction with World Environment Day 2005, ScrapHouse illustrates the possibilities—as well as the challenges—of green building, recycling, and reuse.  Over the course of just six weeks, a team of volunteers led by Public Architecture scoured Bay Area dumps and scrap yards. A group of architects, landscape architects, lighting specialists, and metal fabricators re-purposed the materials, giving them new life. With walls sheathed with everything from street signs and shower doors, ScrapHouse drew tens of thousands of passersby. Solid core doors recovered from a school construction project became an interesting floor material. Outdated phone books became a wonderfully textured insulating wall. Retired fire hoses from the San Francisco Fire Department were deployed as wall paneling, dramatically transforming a double height living space. And when it was all said and done, “scrap” had taken on a whole new meaning.

Project:
Day Labor Station

Collaborators:
National Day Labor Organizing Network

Deliverable:
Day labor Station design concept

Recognition:
Spontaneous Interventions, U.S. Pavilion at the 13th Venice International Architecture Biennale, 2012

Holcim Foundation Award for Sustainable Construction, Global Innovation Prize, 2009

Holcim Foundation Award for Sustainable Construction, Silver Prize, 2008

Design for the Other 90%, Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, 2007

While the contributions of day laborers typically go unseen, most cities’ inability to accommodate them within the urban infrastructure is highly visible. Day laborers’ role in the informal economy has forced them to occupy spaces meant for other uses, such as street corners, gas stations, and home improvement store parking lots. A relatively small number of officially sanctioned day labor centers have appeared in recent years, but the informal gathering sites remain the norm. Present in spaces designated for other uses, these sites often lack even the most basic of amenities (shelter, water, toilet facilities, etc). The Day Labor Station is a design initiative that we are developing to address the needs of a community that traditionally has not had access to quality design environments.

The Station is a simple, flexible structure that can be deployed at these informal day labor locations. It is a self-sustaining project that will utilize green materials and strategies and will exist primarily–if not completely–off the grid. Our design is based on the realities of the ways in which the day labor system operates, and responds to the needs and desires of the day laborers themselves, as our clients. As such, the structure is flexible enough to serve various uses, including as an employment center, meeting space, and classroom.

The Day Labor Station design initiative has always been more than just a design project. Public Architecture also leads a robust advocacy and public relations effort, including a dedicated website. All these initiatives represent part of our effort to humanize the laborers and elevate the debate about them, the spaces they inhabit, and the ways in which they exist in the fabric of the community.