The Design Trust Council is a leadership circle of civic-minded professionals who support the Design Trust’s mission to make a lasting impact—through design—on public space in NYC.
The Design Trust Equitable Public Space Fellowship Program, established in 2016, supports the next generation of urban designers, architects, landscape architects, and planners in contributing to complex public space challenges in our global city.
We've partnered with the Macaulay Honors College at CUNY to grow the pipeline of students with underrepresented backgrounds in the planning, design, and preservation fields.
Founded in 2001, our Photo Urbanism program offers fellowships to local photographers to create a new body of work illuminating the public spaces of NYC. Explore past exhibitions at photourbanism.org.
The first Photo Urbanism Fellowship was awarded to Len Jenshel and Diane Cook for their project, "The Edge of New York," where they documented 600 miles of New York City waterfront. Learn more about this program.
The second Photo Urbanism Fellowship was awarded to Jonathan Smith for "The Bridge Project," a series that captured the city's bridges, highways, walkways and overpasses. Learn more about this program.
The third Photo Urbanism Fellowship was awarded to Travis Roozée for his project, "Portrait of Jamaica Bay," which told the story of a distinctive but little-known part of New York City. Learn more about this program.
The fourth Photo Urbanism fellowship was awarded to Gail Albert Halaban for her project, "Out My Window," where she focused on the views that shape New Yorkers' everyday lives. Learn more about this program.
The fifth Photo Urbanism Fellowship was awarded to Kramer O’Neill for his project, "Same Time Every Day," where he photographed five distinct locations throughout New York City at the same time, every day. Learn more about this program.
The 2011 Photo Urbanism fellowship was awarded to Rob Stephenson for his project "From Roof to Table," where he documented over 100 urban farms and gardens in NYC. Learn more about this program.
In 2013 we awarded the seventh Photo Urbanism Fellowship to the Brooklyn-based photographer Krisanne Johnson to document “life under and around elevated infrastructure in New York City.” Learn more about this program.
In 2016 we awarded the eighth Photo Urbanism Fellowship to photojournalist Gareth Smit to document Staten Island's North Shore in a time of transformation. Learn more about this program.
In 2020, we awarded the Photo Urbanism Fellowship to Barnabas Crosby to document the ingenuity of small businesses during the pandemic in tandem with the Neighborhood Commons project. Learn more about this program.
In 2022, we awarded the Photo Urbanism Fellowship to Elliot Golden to use photography as a tool for public health and community development alongside the Restorative City project. Learn more about this program.
We are awarding our 2023 Photo Urbanism Fellowship to NYCHA resident Latricia Morgan to document community at New York public housing campuses. Learn more about this program.
Free and open to all, our popular Public Space Potlucks gather urban enthusiasts of all ages and backgrounds together for a shared meal, temporarily transforming New York City’s public space into a communal dining room.
From time to time, the Design Trust undertakes special projects that come to us outside of our regular RFP process and tend to be short-term initiatives. See all of our current projects here.
Today, New Yorkers can hail Nissan's NV200 Taxi of Tomorrow – a safer, more comfortable, user-friendly taxi designed and engineered especially for them. This would not have been possible without the pioneering efforts of the Design Trust. Learn more about this program.
In 2013, the Times Square Alliance invited the Design Trust for Public Space to select eight firms to design an interactive, heart-themed public space intervention to engage the nearly 500,000 daily visitors to Times Square. Learn more about this program.