The current crises that grip New York City have brought the design community together to help address immediate and long-term implications to the public realm. Redefining the Street: A Community Design Collaboration, sponsored by the AIANY-NYS Unified Crisis Task Force and ASLA-NY, invites the AEC industries to reimagine public space to equitably improve the health, access, and safety of New York City. The collaboration will examine functional and operational aspects of the built environment, both through temporary measures and permanent solutions. While outcomes from the collaboration are not prescribed, they could contribute to the city’s future urban policies.
The Community Design Collaboration is a multi-stage initiative, which will include community listening sessions and expert panels to generate ideas for the city. Borough-based workshops will hone, localize, and scale ideas from the listening sessions and panels. Using these localized ideas, the taskforce will issue an open call to match community stakeholders with AEC teams, with the goal of developing strategies that can be implemented by the city.
This listening sessoin with multiple community groups is part of the first stage of the initiative, which hollistically examines and documents the crises faced by our city from multiple perspectives. For this session, community groups will share new and existing isssues they are witnessing in their communities, including street corridor activation, waste stream alternatives, residential and community interest, and the empowerment of marginalized residents.
Speakers:
Marisa DeDominicis, Co-founder and Executive Director, Earth Matter NY
Carey King, Director, Uptown Grand Central
Damyanti Radheshwar, AIA, FIIA, LEED AP, Advisor, Asia Initiatives
Moderator:
Margaret Sullivan, Founder & Principal, Margaret Sullivan Solutions
About the Speakers:
Marisa DeDominicis has a BA in Business and Organizational Communications from Emerson College, Boston. She worked for the Trust for Public Land as an environmental educator and site coordinator for 18 years.
Carey King is director of Uptown Grand Central and brings a wealth of experience to the organization. A graduate of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and a product of Columbia University’s School of Journalism, King has worked in fields ranging from community development and food access to community news and inclusive education—including GrowNYC, the Corbin Hill Food Project, Sesame Street, The Sylva Herald, and as a pre-K teacher through Teach For America. She has lived in Harlem for more than a decade. King brings a special passion to her work, given that she lives just one block away from the East 125th Street corridor and the Uptown Grand Central community plaza. Since joining Uptown Grand Central in June 2015, she has been recognized by the NYPD 25th Precinct with a Community Service Award, named as a New York City Food Policy Center “Forty Under Forty” Rising Star, and selected as a Coro NY Neighborhood Leader.
Damyanti Radheshwar, FIIA, AIA, LEED AP (London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Cities – Master of Science in Cities, University of Bombay, India Bachelor of Architecture) is a current architect and urbanist. Radheshwar holds the conviction that planning and architecture must work for the betterment of communities has been the foundation of her professional life. Investigations in architecture and urbanism and research into the physical, environmental, socio-economic, and cultural circumstances surrounding a project have been central to her process. Radheshwar’s notable works include cultural and institutional projects, examinations in transport infrastructure, sustainable community solutions, housing governance as related to economic considerations, and health impact. Most recently, Radheshwar participated in design competitions for higher density housing in Henderson, Nevada and infill urban housing in New York City.
Margaret Sullivan is a national thought leader in assisting public libraries envision their preferred future. Since founding her firm, Margaret Sullivan Studio, in 2014, she has worked with the country’s leading library systems including the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, New York Public Library, DC Public Library, Richland (SC) Library, Salt Lake City Public Library, and Charlotte Mecklenburg Library on a variety of projects including strategic planning, master facilities planning, visioning, programming, architecture and interior design, and staff workshops. She is a national leader in effective community engagement, conducting meaningful dialogue to foster community goals. She leads a studio of designers who skillfully collaborate with stakeholders and the design team to represent a holistic understanding of the institution’s service model and is a leader in translating these design goals into physical spaces. Prior to establishing her own firm, Sullivan worked for prestigious architecture firms including H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture as Director of Interior Design. In 2017, she was named one of Interior Design Magazine’s Rising Stars.
About the Orgnizations:
The mission of Asia Initiatives (AI) is to leverage the power of social capital to promote healthcare, education, improve livelihoods, and sustainable development, striving to bring positive change in the quality of life of people in under-served communities. With a particular focus on women, girls and their families, our initiatives utilize transformative methodologies and technologies to empower people to realize their full potential, and become key stakeholders of their own success. Recently, the organizations engaged in work to revitalizing NYCHA campus exterior spaces.
Earth Matter NY is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The organization seeks to reduce the organic waste misdirected into the garbage stream by encouraging neighbor participation and leadership in composting.
Uptown Grand Central is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to transforming East 125th Street into a thriving corridor by delivering programs that put advocacy into action through collaborations with businesses, residents and neighborhood organizations across East Harlem.
AIA New York and ASLA-NY
