Designing for Public Life, Dialogue 3: Democracy, Equity, and Public Space

This third Dialogue of the Designing for Public Life program series, featuring Mindy Fullilove and Ron Shiffman, will lean into the political, reflecting on the current moment. The recent internal attacks on democracy and equity make championing our life in public spaces an imperative.

From the occupation of Zucotti Park, to Black Lives Matter, and now the pro-democracy movement, NYC’s public spaces play a strategic role for our democratic values and promoting equity. Its role will be examined in light of the current US government’s Executive Branch actions, including the wake of recent deportations that ignore the right to due process, the threats to educational institutions, and the wholesale dismantling of Federal departments that safeguard and support its citizens.

Looking at the physical examples of Main Street and other public places, some of the questions that will be examined are:

• Why do people still feel it is so important to gather and demonstrate in public?
• What foundational principles do designers need to make meaningful places?
• How does the creation of meaningful places strengthen our region?
• What is the role of NYC’s public places in promoting equity and democratic values?
• How can Mindy Fullilove’s nine Elements of Urban Restoration point toward a rebuilding process for our communities, despite the current national mood?

Speakers:
Mindy Fullilove, MD, DLFAPA, Hon. AIA, Co-founder, Cities Research Group; Professor of Urban Policy & Health, The New School
Ronald Shiffman, Professor Emeritus, Pratt Institute School of Architecture, Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment

Moderator:
Ann Marie Baranowski, FAIA, LEED AP, Founding Principal, AMBA

About the Speakers:
Mindy Fullilove is a renowned American social psychiatrist who focuses on ways social and environmental factors affect the mental health of communities. Dr. Fullilove’s research examines the mental health effects of environmental processes such as violence, segregation, and urban renewal. Fullilove was commended by Jane Jacobs for her application of science to urban studies. She is a Professor Emeritus of Urban Policy and Health at The New School and the author of more than 100 papers and eight books, including Main Street: How a City’s Heart Connects Us All, Urban Alchemy: Restoring Joy in America’s Sorted-Out Cities, and Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, and What We Can Do About It.

Ronald Shiffman is a community-based planner who has worked with low- and moderate-income neighborhoods since 1964, when he co-founded and directed the nation’s oldest university-based public interest architectural, planning and community development assistance center at Pratt Institute (1964-2004). Working with the people of Bedford Stuyvesant, the Central Brooklyn Coordinating Council and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy he helped to launch the nation’s first community development corporation in1967. In 1990, Schiffman was appointed by Mayor David Dinkins to the NYC Planning Commission. He has received awards from Architects, Designers and Planners for Social Responsibility, the AIA, the American Institute of Certified Planners, the Municipal Art Society, and from a score of community-based organizations. Shiffman is the recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award and the American Planning Association’s National Planning Pioneer Award. He was honored by Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation’s with their Franklin Thomas Award in 2018. Shiffman is Professor Emeritus at Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture’s Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment (GCPE) where he continues to teach. His course in GCPE’s Place Making Program focuses on Democracy and Place.

Ann Marie Baranowski is the Founding Principal of her eponymous NYC-based architecture firm, AMBA. Her practice is founded on the belief that culture as an investment embedded in the built environment is as essential as the physical infrastructure of our buildings and cities. Baranowski focuses on the intersection of public space and art. Working in the public realm, she has partnered on significant projects that set a national example for enriching urban life, including public art installations at Fulton Center and South Ferry Terminal for the NY Metropolitan Transit Authority, and as Museum Architect for the Brooklyn Museum of Art, directing the planning and implementation of the $32M Eastern Parkway Entrance to renew the Museum’s identity.