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has to basically be bomb-, vandalist-, graffiti artist-proof [laughs]. We focused on the Meatpacking District’s triangle outside Pastis restaurant, one of the no man’s lands the city is trying to reclaim. The outdoor display system needed to be adaptable to different settings, from cobblestone to asphalted pavements, movable, and modular to accommodate flat artworks of various sizes, to be viewed from both sides. What was the main lesson students learned from this real-world class? Ruggiero: When they began working with a municipal agency—one of the largest administrations in the world—students had no idea about the competitiveness in the city, not to mention the whole process
of RFPs. They had never considered that all these things are actually designed within a huge set of restrictions, regulations, and constraining conditions. How does the transformation of the public sector impact the role of the designer? Feuer: There’s an ongoing paradigm shift in the definition of New York City streets. New York City is no longer a 19thcentury city. Inevitably, our city is going to continue to grow, and our streets need to evolve to meet the current and future demands of citizens. That means building on innovations that support environmental sustainability, improve mobility, and enhance the quality of life for city residents and visitors. Recent initiatives like the new bike lanes and temporary
public art are projects that require the participation of creative individuals. As streets get redesigned, designers need to bring ideas forward with new approaches and be part of the process. What’s the next step for this partnership between Parsons and DOT? Colasacco: We plan to challenge Parsons students with an assignment that asks them to rethink and improve upon signage in the city, all within the context of the regulations that apply to these markers. We’ll use a brief similar to the one used in Andrea’s class and ask students to develop recommendations. It’s another real-life challenge for these students to embrace!
NYC Department of Parks and Recreation PROJECT #2 Faculty: Scott Pobiner, Assistant Professor, School of Design Strategies; Eduardo Staszowski, Assistant Professor, School of Design Strategies; Miodrag Mitrasinovic, dean, School of Design Strategies | Agency: Nette Compton, Senior Project Manager for Design; Charles McKinney, Chief of Design, Capital Projects Division, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation with Hester Street Collaborative Laetitia Wolff: Describe the process of collaborating with Parks and Recreation. Pobiner: Like all of the School of Design Strategies’ external partnership projects, the partnership with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation dealt with exploration of a new area of research for the partner. The question that we and our partners designed to lead this collaboration was “What will constitute urban recreation in the 21st
century in NYC?” We are interested in understanding, and designing for, the stakeholders of tomorrow’s recreation without losing sight of the rich history of public space in New York City. This question brought us to understand that the design problem is not only about forms of play and recreation in public space, but also about the institutional, organizational, social, and material infrastructure that underlies urban recreation.
What were some of the challenges inherent to those relations? Compton: Parks and Recreation’s main challenge was to figure out how to better engage the community. Given the city’s incredible sociocultural diversity, language barriers, and the cultural preferences and space requirements of each user group, it’s not easy to gather information. We looked at major problems such as the lack of public attendance at community meetings and