Last night, the Design Trust community gathered for our first in-person event since the start of the pandemic to recognize the winning proposals for our current RFP, The Restorative City! 

We spent a beautiful evening at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside in Prospect Park, surrounded by fellows, partners, board members, and friends from all over the City. We celebrated each other, the visionary winning teams, and the Design Trust’s growth in pursuing a more just built environment for all.

Message from the Design Trust for Public Space on June 1, 2023: As of April 2023, Design Trust for Public Space will no longer be partnering with the Design as Protest Collective (DAP) on the Healing Hostile Architecture project. Both Design Trust and DAP recognize the urgency of this work, which has only become more critical since the proposal, “Healing Hostile Architecture,” was submitted in the spring of 2021 to our Restorative City Request for Proposals aimed at building community wellness through public space. The Neurodiverse City project, also chosen as a winner of the RFP, will continue on. We support DAP in their ongoing work engaging communities directly to co-design safe and non-policing environments. The Design Trust for Public Space stays committed to transforming the public realm into a welcoming and inclusive space for all.

More about The Restorative City winners:

Launched in spring 2021, The Restorative City is a major Design Trust initiative dedicated to connecting health equity with the built environment throughout New York City. The winning projects were selected by a jury of city government officials and industry leaders from a short-list of eight finalists, drawn from an initial group of more than 90 proposals. The winners were: 

• The Neurodiverse City, a collaboration between Verona Carpenter Architects and WIP Collaborative. This initiative advocates for public spaces in our city that offer inclusive zones where all of us, including those with “invisible disabilities” and sensory sensitivities, can come together and find common ground.

• Healing Hostile Architecture: Design as Care, led by Design as Protest, a collective of BIPOC designers and advocates. The initiative supports the development of community-driven design policies and new regenerative design models to replace hostile environments and provide care for unhoused populations.

Honorable mention was given to the Forest Avenue COMEUnity Fridge Fellowship Program, which creates opportunities for local youth to support a mutual aid network targeting food insecurity throughout the transformation of an underutilized space in Staten Island.

 To learn more about next steps and the winning proposals, click here. And check out more photos from the event below!