SATURDAY 22 MARCH, 2014 2:00-5:00PM

Despite the uncertain future of the South Street Seaport, one thing is sure: it’s a place of rooted culture, rich histories and meaning. Its federal-style brick buildings and historical boats, its rich culinary and market culture, the arts community presence and beyond, these are few of the assets worth celebrating if we want to imagine its future together. How can we use design to make these cultural gems more visible and create a more vibrant place in Lower Manhattan? Designers can’t do it alone, we need the wisdom of the diverse community of residents, business owners, day workers and visitors, designers and more to join us in what promises to be an open, inspiring dialog to imagine your next Seaport.

Designer Yeju Choi presenting the past, present and future of the South Street Seaport Team’s progress.

Susan Silberberg on “Place in the Making”

LOCATION
Aniello Bianco Room, ground floor
Pace University, One Pace Plaza
(use side entrance of the Schimmel Theater on Spruce Street).
MAP

SCHEDULE
PART 1 : TALK

•    (2:00-2:10 PM) Welcome and Introduction by AIGA/NY
•    (2:10-3:00PM) Susan Silberberg, the critically acclaimed city planner and expert on Placemaking (MIT). Her recent study, “Place in the Making” examines the interactions between placemaking, inclusive participation, and the expanding ways communities are collaborating to make great public spaces.
•    (3:00-3:15 PM): Q+A
brief coffee break

PART 2: COMMUNITY CHARRETTE
•    (3:30-3:40 PM) Sara Williams (Fresh Salt) on the  “Out To See” festival
•    (3:40-4:00PM) Design/Relief’s “Catch & Release” team on Past / Present / Future of project
•    (4:00-5:00 PM) Community Workshop
Come participate in an interactive, fun and imaginative exercise to help the Seaport community collectively identify the hidden cultural gems and untold stories in the Seaport and raise their visibility for all to see and enjoy.

SUSAN SILBERBERG
An accomplished city planner, urban designer, architect, author and educator, Susan Silberberg is Lecturer in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT and the Founder and Managing Director of CivicMoxie, LLC, a planning, urban design, real estate development advisory group.  Susan is lead author of Places in the Making: How placemaking builds places and communities, the 2013 MIT white paper on the current state of placemaking. Susan has led two Boston waterfront planning efforts, created master plans for new arts districts, and worked with community development corporations. As Associate Director of the MetLife Innovative Space Awards, she worked with over 100 arts and cultural organizations nationwide to identify best practices for affordable artist space development and community engagement.  She has also served as the Associate Director of the Northeast Mayors’ Institute on City Design.  Susan is currently leading the placemaking effort in Santurce, Puerto Rico for the Foundation for Puerto Rico.

SARA WILLIAMS
Sara Williams is Brooklyn based artist and business owner, originally from Northampton, MA. She began working at the Mercury Lounge and Bowery ballroom in 1998, during which time she completed her MFA from Maine College of Art. After a six year run, Sara left the award winning venues to open her own bar and cafe, Fresh Salt. In 2013, Sara opened The Saint Catherine in Prospect Heights/Crown Heights, Brooklyn, her second venture.  She lives in Fort Greene and works in her nearby studio.

DESIGN/RELIEF CATCH&RELEASE TEAM
Yeju Choi of NowHere Office (designer), with Francesca Birks and Josh Treuhaft of ARUP (community engagement strategists), and Cristian Fleming and Stephanie Lukito of The Public Society (phase 1 storytellers).

For more information on Catch&Release please email hidden; JavaScript is required.

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WEDNESDAY 22 JANUARY, 2014 6:30-8:30PM

Three Design/Relief teams present their projects for Red Hook, South Street Seaport and Rockaways for public feedback and discussion. Since mid-October they’ve been engaging with these communities to help them imagine a more vibrant future as they overcome the lingering effects of Superstorm Sandy. The Design/Relief teams will walk you through their research, team building and concept development process in short presentations. An open conversation will follow to discuss how designers can contribute to shaping our city, what role should designers play in the emerging field of creative placemaking. We encourage you to participate in the conversation: come and mingle with our Creative Placemakers.

MEET THE DESIGN/RELIEF TEAMS

TIME AND PLACE
WHEN: Wednesday 22 January 2014, 6:30–8:30PM
WHERE: Bumble & Bumble Auditorium,
415 West 13th Street, 3rd floor, off 9th Avenue
6:30-7:00PM Doors open & check-in
7:00-8:30PM Presentations & Discussion

RSVP HERE

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 SATURDAY 11 JANUARY 2014 | 2:00-6:00 PM

Catch — & — Release aims to capture, make visible and celebrate the resilient spirit and agency of the South Street Seaport community, one of the areas hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy. The Catch — & — Release installation is temporarily set up, in a vacant space under the FDR at John Street, from January 11 until February 2, 2014. It offers a physical respite where neighbors, visitors and all are invited to share messages of gratitude. In this interactive space, visitors are performing a sort of ritual by which their written “Thank You” notes will be publicly “caught,” and elevated to create an installation that will become the visual symbol of this place. “As messages accumulate, this installation will become a visible symbol of the unity, shared visions and social network of the South Street Seaport community,” explains Yeju Choi, lead designer on the Catch — & — Release project.

Catch — & — Release was prepared for the New York State Department of State Office of Coastal, Local Government and Community Sustainability with funds provided under Title 11 of the Environmental Protection Fund. Catch — & — Release was developed by Yeju Choi (designer), with Francesca Birks and Josh Treuhaft (community engagement strategists), and Cristian Fleming and Stephanie Lukito (storytellers). This installation was designed and built by Yeju Choi, with Chat Travieso, Heechan Kim, and Chris Fox. Special Thanks to NYC&Co.

 To read the complete press release about this project:  SSSpressrelease_JAN11.2014.

TIME AND PLACE
WHEN: OPENING SAT JAN 11, 2:00-6:00PM, wiht Opening Remarks and Presentations at 3:00PM
The installation will be open TUES-SUN from 11-7PM, starting JAN 14, 2014
WHERE: Design/Relief box is under the FDR (at South St & John St)

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WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 11, 2013 | 6:00 PM

Ruedi Baur presenting at ARUP NY, South Street Seaport (photo Steve Burke) and his way finding system for the city of Metz, France 

Paris-based expert Ruedi Baur, Principal at Ruedi Baur Design, and founder of Civic City, a Geneva-based institute of critical research focused on the identity of places. Baur will walk us through a select number of case studies of his participatory design practice and academic labs, which often leverage the use of typography as a civic act.

Trained as a graphic designer at the Schule für Gestaltung in Zürich, French-Swiss designer Ruedi Baur settled in Lyon in the 80′s where he launched his first graphic design studio, before opening in 1989 in Paris Integral Ruedi Baur, with partners Pippo Lionni and Philippe Delis. His interdisciplinary practice specializes in exhibition design, as well as way-finding, identity systems and civic projects touching on creative placemaking issues. A prolific thinker, writer, critic and practitioner he has collaborated with a number of large cultural institutions, including the Centre Pompidou for which he redesigned its signage and identity system. He is close to the milieu of architecture and urban design and often intervenes in questions related to the cultural identity, branding and scenography of cultural infrastructures, cities and communities. As the ultimate European globetrotter, Baur has been teaching interdisciplinary design in schools such as Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in Zürich (ZHKZ), where he founded the Institute for Research Design2context. Most recently he has developed Civic City, a post-graduate research institute and is teaching at the Haute Ecole d’Art et de Design (HEAD) in Geneva and at the Arts Décoratifs in Paris (ENSAD).

THURSDAY 24 OCTOBER 2013 | 6:00-8:00PM

Donald Hyslop presenting at Pioneer Works, Red Hook and The Reunion, a project he quoted from London-based Exyst, a firm the Tate Modern has collaborated with in recent past, to activate empty lots in the nearby residential neighborhood.

 REINVENTING COMMUNITIES THROUGH CULTURE

The first in a series of Design/Relief Creative Placemaking talks

As we approach Super storm Sandy’s one-year anniversary and to start our Design/Relief conversation+action initiative AIGA/NY is proud to invite inspiring leaders in community development and experts from around the world to present their stories and best practices in creative placemaking. A series of informal talks will unfold throughout Design/Relief’s project. Come and join us for an intimate conversation with UK-based expert Donald Hyslop, Head of Regeneration and Community Partnerships at Tate Modern, London.

LOCATION:
Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer Street (at Imlay Street), Red Hook, Brooklyn

WEDNESDAY 16 OCTOBER 2013 | 6:00-8:00PM

Manuel Miranda and Laetitia Wolff  introducing Design/Relief teams

DESIGN/RELIEF KICKOFF PART 2

The kick-off event officially launched the three design teams. It started with a presentation of the Design/Relief program’s framework, goals, team structure and collaborative approach. A selection of community representatives from the three neighborhoods also shared their experience and perspectives, providing inspiring, informative and touching testimonies. Stakeholders ranged from NYC Small Business Services grant managers focused on cohesion in the South Street Seaport merchants community, photographers documenting the effects of Sandy on low-income residents and independent business owners of the Rockaways to social services and community activists in Red Hook. The presence of these community leaders marked the first step towards establishing a partnership with neighborhood associations and nonprofits, small businesses, Business Improvements Districts (BID), and individuals who have a vested interest in rebuilding efforts in these neighborhoods.

LOCATION:
Bumble & Bumble Auditorium, 415 West 13th Street, Meatpacking areas, New York

WEDNESDAY 8 OCTOBER 2013 | 8:30-10:00AM

Willy Wong introducing the Design/Relief program

DESIGN/RELIEF KICKOFF PART 1

This first kick-off event introduced the three design teams to each other. It started with a presentation of the Design/Relief program’s framework, goals, team structure and collaborative approach. A Q+A followed and then already a passionate conversation around what is creative placemaking. TBD…

LOCATION:
General Assembly, West 21st Street