Design Corps For seniors and juniors ready to take what they are learning in class and apply it to real community needs, Pratt has offered Design Corps since 2005 in the undergraduate Department of Communications Design. Under the direction of Adjunct Associate Professors Michael Kelly (B.F.A. ’96) and David Frisco, the course simulates the work of a design firm in servicing a real client: students work individually and as teams, gaining valuable industry experience, while providing a nonprofit organization with high-quality work at no cost. In spring 2010, Design Corps came to the aid of Recycle-A-Bicycle, an organization that has been selling refurbished bikes to support its youth programs since 1995. With storefronts in DUMBO (pictured here), and the East Village, the group now recycles 1,200 donated bikes annually.
Pratt Center: Sustainable Houses of Worship “Recycle-A-Bicycle has evolved tremendously,” explains Pasqualina Azzarello, executive director, “but our website had pictures of kids who have now graduated from college. It was high time to redevelop our website to better communicate with our community, and Design Corps seemed like a perfect fit.” After viewing class efforts, Azzarello chose a design by [then senior] David Chapman, which she felt best maintained the nonprofit’s personality and spirit while putting forward its changes and growth. “I think what Design Corps brings to the students’ education is this idea of giving back,” says Kelly. “A website is pretty standard for us, but working with the community is really important, because the intention of Pratt is to prepare students for going out and dealing with the larger world.”
Former Design Corps student David Chapman (B.F.A. ’10) makes last-minute changes to the website he designed for the client Recycle-A-Bicycle (RAB) under the watchful eyes of Adjunct Associate Professors Michael Kelly (B.F.A. ’96) and David Frisco, as RAB Executive Director Pasqualina Azzarello looks on. 20
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Many of Brooklyn's 1,000 houses of worship are beloved historic buildings, centerpieces of their communities. Yet, many suffer from years of deferred maintenance, and their physical deterioration can sharply undermine the churches’ religious, social service, and educational missions. Aware of this problem, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery (D-Brooklyn) is providing a $50,000 state grant for a Pratt Center pilot project to offer technical support to three churches in Bedford-Stuyvesant: Siloam Presbyterian, Friendship Baptist, and Mt. Pisgah Baptist. “For each we will conduct a basic shell assessment, space utilization survey, and energy audit,” explains Pratt Center lead architect Michael Kriegh, who heads the project. “The energy conservation piece of the puzzle is the one Mt. Pisgah congregants
decided to focus on most directly.” Under its dynamic pastor, the Reverend Dr. Johnny Ray Youngblood, Mt. Pisgah is seeing a resurgence of membership even as it is experiencing problems with its physical plant: The sanctuary is too cold; the adjacent school is too hot. Such inconsistent heating pointed to boiler problems in the 127-year-old Italianate structure. As a result, Mt. Pisgah congregants have focused on energy conservation. Anita Alexander, Mt. Pisgah’s director of social justice ministry, has been a church member for over 50 years. “Now with this program,” she says happily, “we’ll be able to divide and separate the controls of the boiler into one for the school and one for the church. And we’re so grateful for the contractor the Pratt Center suggested, because the fee is very reasonable.”
An energy assessment arranged through the Pratt Center recommended changing to energy-efficient lighting fixtures, so Kriegh connected Mt. Pisgah to a Con Edison program that changes or modifies light fixtures for 70 percent of the installed cost. Next, Kriegh plans to organize training sessions for church maintenance personnel. This will be accomplished under an $85,000 federal grant from Congressman Edolphus Towns (D-Brooklyn), which will also be used by the Pratt Center to launch a new initiative: the Green Community Career and Business Training Center. That center will build upon the Sustainable Houses of Worship effort to develop a certificate program for non-professionals, skilled, and semi-skilled workers to work in churches. P
Anita Alexander, director of social justice ministry at Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant, raises energy conservation concerns with Pratt Center lead architect Michael Kriegh. 21