Public spaces in New York should be available to everyone. Yet too often, only our wealthiest neighborhoods see dynamic, well-maintained streets, parks, and plazas.
Urban Design Forum and ANHD came together to launch the Local Center because we believe New Yorkers deserve to have a greater voice in the future of their neighborhoods. From 2023-2024, the Local Center supported teams of designers and neighborhood leaders to bring local visions for public space to life. Across the five boroughs, they realized ambitious projects — they launched markets, created history corridors, and built creative lighting installations, and developed roadmaps to advocate for deeper investment.
And behind the scenes, our model worked: projects built pride and proved change is possible, local partners and designers gained critical skills and connections, and we supported government innovation to respond to local priorities.
In our Impact Report, released today, we lay out our process, what we learned, and our ideas for how community organizations, designers, funders, and government can all play a role in ensuring all New York City neighborhoods have the power and resources to shape their futures.
Ideas for Action
As our leaders, your charge is to set the visionary agenda and priorities for our City.
Your work is critical in ensuring our City’s services reach not just the wealthiest neighborhoods, but all of NewYork, and that they reflect the creativity and innovative spirit unique to our city
In this landscape, we know government can’t do it alone.
Power in the public realm comes from the community-based organizations within our neighborhoods, leading programming, visioning long-term changes to the built environment, and advocating for investments and regulatory improvements.
Whether you’re a designer, engineer, or lawyer, lending your skills to New York City is a civic service.
The Fund for the Public Realm
About the Local Center
A partnership between Urban Design Forum and the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development, the Local Center is a community design initiative to equip local leaders with the technical assistance, funding, and connections to reclaim public spaces in their neighborhood.
Support
Rooted Cultures projects are made possible with lead support from the Mellon Foundation and with additional major support from Charles H. Revson Foundation, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, NYC Green Fund, administered by City Parks Foundation, and Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Connected Corridors projects are made possible with support from National Grid’s Project C, NYC Department of Small Business Services, Charles H. Revson Foundation, Deutsche Bank, NYC Green Fund, administered by City Parks Foundation, and Lily Auchincloss Foundation. The Local Center is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Our programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
To learn more about supporting the Local Center, please contact Katherine Sacco, katherine@urbandesignforum.org and Lauren Nye, lauren.n@anhd.org.