Design Trust for Public Space Fellowships

The Design Trust for Public Space is seeking Fellows for two of our new projects:

1. Architecture, Engineering & Graphic Design Fellowsfor Design Guidelines for Neighborhood Retail in partnership with the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development
   
2. Design Education & Information Design Fellows forFMCP Creative / Reconnect the Park with the Queens Museum and the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation
   

Fellowship OverviewDesign Trust Fellows are leading professionals in their field, and are chosen for their expertise, experience, and strong qualifications. Fellows must have demonstrated ability to work both independently and collaboratively as well as have direct experience producing deliverables similar to those of the Fellow Description. Once selected, Fellows will play a lead role on projects that will have a real impact on the City. Design Trust projects require significant time commitments from Fellows to work with multiple stakeholders, develop implementable strategies and recommendations, and produce final deliverables. Fellows will be expected to devote approximately 1-2 days per week to the project and participate in biweekly project meetings, from late September 2014 through the end of March 2015. A stipend will be awarded to the Fellow, commensurate with prior experience.

Firm principals and sole proprietors are encouraged to apply, understanding that the fellowship is a significant time commitment and with modest compensation. Professionals with full-time positions may apply if they have the support of their employers; recognition of firms can be arranged. Pairs of professionals may also apply to share a single fellowship. Students are not eligible to apply.

Fellowship BenefitsDesign Trust Fellows receive benefits that impact their immediate and long-term career:

• The opportunity to contribute their intellect and skills to producing real change in New York City's built environment
• Introductions to and opportunities for significant engagement with policymakers, community leaders, and professionals from other disciplines
• A modest honorarium, typically between $5,000 - $10,000, depending on the scope of work and experience of the Fellow
• Publication of their work (print and digital). Each Fellow will be given 20 copies of the print publication for their personal and professional use
• Participation in speaking engagements associated with the project or related topic (Design Trust events and programs organized by peer organizations)
• Credit as a Design Trust Fellow for life, including ongoing recognition on the Design Trust website (project/Fellowships pages) as well as invitations to Fellows events
• Honorary Membership in Design Trust Council, the leadership circle of the Design Trust for Public Space, for a year, including invitations to Design Trust Council events. For more information:http://www.designtrust.org/programs/dt-council/

FELLOWSHIP + PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS

1. Design Guidelines for Neighborhood RetailMayor de Blasio's 'Housing New York': A Five-Borough, Ten-Year Housing Plan, calls for a holistic approach to community development that will support diverse, livable neighborhoods, including an increased emphasis on mixed-use development. Because HPD's core competency is housing, the agency needs to build capacity in developing non-residential, ground-floor spaces in mixed-use buildings. Ground-floor space that is not thoughtfully designed to be attractive and accommodating to a wide variety of tenants may be difficult to lease, resulting in underutilized or vacant space. Underutilized space represents a missed opportunity to provide needed amenities to residents and detracts from the quality of streetscapes.

For several years, HPD has engaged in an agency-wide initiative to improve retail outcomes. Based on input from a diverse group of development partners and stakeholders, HPD has identified several factors, including high-quality physical design as one of the critical drivers of successful retail. This project aims to improve retail outcomes by developing guidelines for the physical design of retail space. Retail space includes any ground-floor use that generates commercial activity or fills a community need and activates the streetscape, e.g. pharmacies, grocery stores, restaurants, health services, recreational centers, and cultural facilities. This project will address new construction projects and if feasible, the retrofitting of existing buildings.

Architecture Fellow 
The Architecture Fellow will be responsible for developing innovative strategies to maximize the use and flexibility of ground floor space in mixed-use affordable housing developments, as well as adjacent streetscapes. The Fellow will collaborate with the Engineering Fellow and Graphic Design Fellow in developing design guidelines and related recommendations. The Fellow will identify the critical design issues that need to be addressed in order for the space and streetscape to be most effectively used. This may include comprehensive general guidelines as well as typologically driven recommendations. Proposed solutions will be subject to realistic cost parameters and peer review.

The Architecture Fellow's final deliverable will be a set of design and engineering guidelines for the effective, flexible use of ground floor space in mixed-use affordable housing developments. Process deliverables may include site analysis, detailed outlines of design issues, memoranda from interviews with stakeholders, visual presentations, and draft design and engineering guidelines, with supporting technical drawings and renderings.

The Fellow will be expected to conduct research with key stakeholders, which may include developers, contractors, designers, engineers, real estate professionals, retailers and related government agencies. Candidates should be licensed architects with at least seven years of relevant work experience and a degree in architecture. Preference will be given to candidates who have conducted research and developed projects related to ground-floor use of mixed-use affordable housing developments. Knowledge of retail strategies and streetscape design is a plus. Additionally, candidates should have significant experience in: graphically communicating and writing about complex issues for a broad public audience; working directly with and presenting to clients (public-sector clients preferred); working on collaborative projects or in teams. Proficiency in CAD software and Adobe Creative Suite is required.

Engineering FellowThe Engineering Fellow will be responsible for developing innovative strategies to maximize the use and flexibility of ground floor space in mixed-use affordable housing developments, as well as adjacent streetscapes. The Fellow will collaborate with the Architecture Fellow and Graphic Design Fellow in developing design guidelines and related recommendations. The Fellow will identify all the critical mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP) and building systems issues that need to be addressed in order for the space and streetscape to be most effectively used. This may include comprehensive general guidelines as well as typologically driven recommendations. Proposed solutions will be subject to realistic cost parameters and peer review.

The Engineering Fellow's final deliverable will be a set of design and engineering guidelines for the effective, flexible use of ground floor space in mixed-use affordable housing developments. Process deliverables may include site analysis, detailed outlines of engineering issues, memoranda from interviews with stakeholders, visual presentations, and draft design and engineering guidelines, with supporting technical drawings and renderings.

The Fellow will be expected to conduct research with key stakeholders, which may include developers, contractors, designers, engineers, real estate professionals, retailers, and related government agencies. Candidates should have at least seven years of relevant work experience and a degree in mechanical engineering or a related field. Preference will be given to candidates who have conducted research and developed projects related to retail and mixed-use affordable housing developments. Additionally, candidates should have significant experience in: writing about complex issues for a broad public audience; working directly with and presenting to clients (public-sector clients preferred); working on collaborative projects or in teams. Proficiency in CAD software and Adobe Creative Suite is required.

Graphic Design FellowThe Graphic Design Fellow will be responsible for developing a graphic identity system for the project, supporting the Architecture and Engineering Fellow in the visual communication of their work, contributing to the development of signage guidelines for the project, and designing the final project publication. The Fellow will be expected to collaborate closely with the full project team from the start. Candidates should have at least five years of relevant work experience and a degree in Graphic Design or a related field. Preference will be given to candidates who have experience working in architecture and the public realm and at multiple scales, ranging from book design to signage. Additionally, candidates should have significant experience in: graphically communicating complex issues for a broad public audience; working directly with and presenting to clients (public-sector clients preferred); working on collaborative projects or in teams.

Final deliverables will include graphic treatment of architecture/engineering drawings and related diagrams, the final project publication, and related promotional material. Process deliverables may include design concepts, interpretations and visualizations of the Architecture and Engineering Fellows' work, and draft designs for the publication and related promotional material.

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2.FMCP Creative / Reconnect the ParkFlushing Meadows Corona Park (FMCP) is an 897-acre site transformed from an ash dump for the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs into a public open space on a grand scale. An enduring legacy of FMCP's origins as a World's Fair site is that its entrances were originally designed for controlled access of ticket-holding Fairgoers, not for ease of access from neighboring communities. These problems are compounded by the lack of a proper wayfinding system that acknowledges how those communities enter, navigate, and use the Park today.Recent efforts to build large commercial developments on parkland have placed FMCP at the center of the debate about parks equity. Stakeholders have stressed the need to more deeply engage the park's diverse communities in planning for its future.

FMCP Creative / Reconnect the Park seeks to establish a model process for addressing design challenges facing city parks by engaging the surrounding communities. The goal is to turn the park's pressing design challenges into a community learning and creative process that yields concrete improvements for the park's built environment and simultaneously increases the levels of park stewardship by those communities.

Participants will be given the opportunity to learn the basic building blocks of community organizing, planning, design, and art of public spaces, while working towards practical design proposals to improve park entrances, pathways, information and signage (ie: wayfinding system), and ultimately, how the park is accessed, circulated, and its spaces are used and shared by its diverse communities.

Note: The two Fellows described below will be joined by a Community Organizing Fellow representing the Queens Museum. Responsibilities include building support from community stakeholders as well as creative stakeholders, helping to guide the development of the curriculum alongside the Design Education Fellow, co-facilitating the community forums and working group sessions, and forming a creatively empowered FMCP constituency.

Design Education FellowThe Design Education Fellow will be responsible for developing a Learning Framework for key components of the redesign of Flushing Meadows Corona Park (FMCP) in collaboration with the Community Organizing Fellow. The Fellow will guide the overall curriculum development by exploring key planning and design issues and opportunities for the park (with a special focus on access, and wayfinding), conducting a needs assessment of community participants, assisting with outreach and selection of Concept Lesson educators, such as landscape architects, and working with domain experts that have little teaching experience to help develop effective lessons. The Design Education Fellow will document the overall learning process, synthesize findings, and work with the Information Design Fellow to present the Learning Framework at the final spring exhibition. A key outcome of the work of the Design Education Fellow will be to articulate how the Learning Framework could be replicated and adapted in other parks and communities throughout NYC.

The Design Education Fellow's final deliverable will be the presentation of the Learning Framework in the final exhibition. Process deliverables may include site analysis, needs assessment memoranda, curriculum plan, and draft Concept Lessons, such as "Justice and Spatial Planning," and "Modular Wayfinding."

Candidates should have at least five years of relevant participatory design/planning and/or design education experience and a degree in adult education, architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, and/or urban design. Preference will be given to candidates who: have experience in transnational, rapidly-changing communities, with shifting social ecologies; can thrive in a multicultural and intergenerational setting; are prepared to have meaningful conversations about equity and environmental justice; and understand creative public spaces as an integral part of social change. Additionally, candidates should have significant experience in: graphically communicating and writing about complex issues for a broad public audience; working directly with and presenting to clients (public-sector clients preferred) and community groups; working on collaborative projects or in teams. Proficiency in CAD software and Adobe Creative Suite is a plus. Demonstrated interest and/or experience in wayfinding is a plus, as is fluency in Spanish, Mandarin or Korean.

Information Design FellowThe Information Design Fellow will be responsible for developing a graphic identity system for the project, working with the Community Organizing fellow in developing outreach materials, supporting the Design Education Fellow in the visual communication of planning and design concepts, and supporting the community working groups with the visual presentation of proposals at the community forums and final exhibition. Additionally, the Information Design Fellow will support the project team and the community working groups in sharing updates and ongoing work through social media and the project's wiki.

The Information Design Fellow's final deliverables will include graphic treatment of the work of the community working groups and the learning framework for the final exhibition, as well as related promotional material. Process deliverables may include design materials for concept lessons, interpretations and visualizations of community-based work, and draft designs for the exhibition and related promotional material.

The Information Design Fellow will be expected to collaborate closely with the full project team and the community working groups from the start. Candidates should have at least three years of relevant work experience and a degree in Graphic Design or a related field. Preference will be given to candidates who have experience working in the public realm and at multiple scales, ranging from book design to exhibitions to wayfinding. Additionally, candidates should have significant experience in: graphically communicating complex issues for a broad public audience; working directly with and presenting to clients (public-sector clients preferred) and community groups; working on collaborative projects or in teams. Proficiency in front-end web development is a plus. Demonstrated interest and/or experience in wayfinding is a plus, as is fluency in Spanish, Mandarin or Korean.

How to apply

Please visit the Design Trust website for full descriptions of the Design Guidelines for Neighborhood Retail Fellowships and the FMCP Creative / Reconnect the Park Fellowships.

All applicants must have the legal ability to work in the United States and must be located in the New York City area to participate in meetings and events.

Candidates should send a cover letter specifying the Fellowship category they are applying for, a curriculum vitae and a sample of relevant work (PDF format) tofellowship@designtrust.org. The deadline to apply isSeptember 15, 2014.