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What is the Center for Active Design?
PHOTO: NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
We are a nonprofit organization that promotes architecture and urban planning solutions to improve public health. As a resource for design professionals, policy makers, community organizations, and the real estate community, we promote and expand on the Active Design Guidelines created by New York City. We maintain a multi-disciplinary perspective in the translation of health research into design solutions that amplify the role of the built environment in the wellbeing of our communities.
What is Active Design? Active Design is an evidenced-based approach to the development of buildings, streets, and neighborhoods that uses architecture and urban design to make physical activity and healthy foods more accessible and inviting.
Why We Matter Chronic diseases—such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers—are the greatest health epidemics of our time. They account for 7 of every 10 deaths in the U.S. and nearly 60% of all deaths worldwide. Physical inactivity is one of the key risk factors for chronic disease. The effects on all of us are consequential. Physical inactivity has replaced smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in the world. In less than 2 generations, physical activity has dropped by 32%, where less than half of adults and children meet the recommended amount of physical activity per week. Chronic diseases account for more than 83% of the $1.4 trillion the U.S. spends on health care annually. Global health care costs totaled $6.2 trillion in one year. This is the first generation in which ten year olds are projected to have a shorter lifespan than their parents if behaviors do not change.
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Audience Profile
PHOTO COURTESY OF BJARKE INGELS GROUP, IWAN BAAN, + JENS LINDHE
A deeply engaged audience »»
46,000+ total number of unique visitors to our website in the 18 months since our launch
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200,000+ page visits in the 18 months since our launch
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Site visitors from 178 countries
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5,000 visitor sessions a month, with over 1,400 sessions 15 minutes and longer.
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29,000 downloads of Active Design publications
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5,000+ subscribers to our newsletter, growing at approximately 250 per month
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Audience consists of professionals from design, real estate, policy, and health
A vibrant network of professionals »»
9,550 professionals trained in the principles of Active Design
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150+ elite professionals and decision makers—including real estate developers and investors, design and health professionals, and New York City Officials—at the Celebrate Active Design gala event.
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Sponsorship Benefits
PHOTO ©IWAN BAAN
The Center has an active community of industry insiders and decision makers. By becoming a sponsor, you will have access to that community through our website, e-newsletter to 5,000+ subscribers, popular print publications, and sold-out public events. The wide array of sponsorship opportunities enables you to find the most effective ways to connect with our audience and maximize your visibility on an ongoing basis.
Active Design is the new sustainability »»
Differentiation. Businesses who identified early with sustainability principles improved their bottom-line. Now, the opportunity is Active Design.
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Brand Extension. Active Design is a fast growing movement in the design, real estate, and health sectors. Increase awareness of your brand and differentiate your firm by aligning with this increasingly vital movement. −− Your logo on our marketing material −− Use of our sponsor logo on your marketing material
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Content Marketing. Opportunity to sponsor content and be involved with the Center for Active Design’s publications and knowledge center. −− Sponsor our current publication under development, Active Design: Workplace Wellbeing −− 29,000 downloads of our publications to date
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Technical Training. Customized material and workshops to incorporate Active Design into your company ethos and portfolio.
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Customer Acquisition Marketing. Opportunities to connect with the Center’s 5,000+ subscribers and 46,000 unique visitors through guest editorials in our newsletter and website.
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Personnel Access to a multidisciplinary network of over 150 key decision makers at our annual awards event, Celebrate Active Design.
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Improve ROI. Projects informed by Active Design principals are set to outperform their pro-forma. Using design strategies based in health evidence is responding to growing market demand.
Gain critical insight into the next wave informing building design 4
Partners Highlights Urban Land Institute The Center is the expert content advisor to the Urban Land Institute’s Building Healthy Places initiative. Established in 1936, the Institute today has more than 33,000 members and associates from some 92 countries, representing the entire spectrum of the land use and development disciplines. Over the past year we’ve worked together to develop a Toolkit that outlines evidence-based strategies for enhancing health outcomes in development projects, based on a thorough review of health literature. Scheduled for publication in early 2015, this resource targets professionals who shape buildings and projects, including developers, owners, property managers, designers, and investors.
Partnership for a Healthier America The Center is working with the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) to identify leaders in the real estate development community that are ready to prioritize health in the design and development of affordable housing buildings. Led by honorary chair First Lady Michelle Obama, PHA is devoted to working with the private sector to ensure the health of our nation’s youth by solving the childhood obesity crisis.
Sponsors/Funders
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Celebrate Active Design 2015
Celebrate Active Design, featuring the Center for Active Design: Excellence Awards, recognizes innovative projects that promote health through the design of buildings, streets, and neighborhoods. Our 2014 event was sold out, and 2015 is sure to be even better, drawing from a range of groundbreaking projects from around the world. The awards reception will occur in May during NYCxDesign. It brings together an elite group of over 150 decision makers from across the building industry—representing developers, investors, designers, planners, government and code officials, and health experts. Sponsoring the Center for Active Design is a great opportunity to maximize your organization’s visibility at our awards reception and align your brand with the Active Design movement. The awards reception is an ideal setting to connect with industry insiders and decision makers. So come to New York City in May and Celebrate Active Design.
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“Monday night’s party was a blast. A big kudos to you and your team for that and all the excellent buzz you’ve been generating with your inaugural awards program. It’s hands-down impressive.” — Marissa Marvelli Marketing Director, BKSK Architects
Press + Reach. The Center for Active Design: Excellence awards and event generated national and international media attention for the Center for Active Design and its project awardees, sponsors, and affiliates. Listed below is a sample of press received after the awards. 4 award-winning buildings that nudge people to live healthier lives “‘There’s been this realization that the design community has a large role to play in public health.’ [Joanna] Frank cites a wide range of small tactics that change people’s activity in built spaces. Benches on sidewalks increase the number of people who walk. Stairwells that are nicely lit and are actually possible to find are a good “active building” strategy. Gardens increase access not just to healthy food, but to increased physical and social activity. ‘We’re talking about using design to make the choice to move the one you actually instinctively want to take.’”
One Step to Combat Obesity: Make Stairs More Attractive “[Active Design] was coined when New York City agencies came together a few years ago and created Active Design Guidelines for architects and planners. The idea is to build an environment that can help us expend energy and use architecture to promote health. Now all new city buildings must consider active design strategies. And the idea has caught on around the country.” Healing the Future: No willpower required “Living a healthy, active lifestyle today is hard. It requires planning. Willpower. Perseverance. But in the future, fitness might not be so difficult. Experts are working to change our environment so that the healthy choice is the easy choice – or not a choice at all. [...]’You can change the built environment to improve health,’ says David Burney, chairman of the board for the Center for Active Design. ‘It’s just finding ways to reverse this culture where we always drive everywhere, always take the escalator…and make people more active in their everyday lives.’”
Luis Giuria’s Active Home Like many other people living in America’s poorest neighborhoods, [Luis] Giuria, a South Bronx native, grew up at risk for obesity [...] To really get healthy, Giuria knew he needed a lifestyle makeover. That’s when he learned about Arbor House, a [...] housing project [that] emphasized active design, an increasingly popular style of architecture that’s meant to encourage physical activity [...] Now 30, Giuria has continued to lose weight–he’s almost down to 200 lb. by running and playing alongside his wife and three kids. ‘This will make it second nature to them to be healthy,’ he says. ‘It won’t be foreign to them like it was for me.’”
The awards also generated media attention from the following news sources:
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PROMOTING HEALTH THROUGH DESIGN
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FRONT COVER: PHOTO COURTESY OF BJARKE INGELS GROUP + IWAN BAAN BACK COVER: PHOTO COURTESY OF EMILY YOUNG