By the City/For the City: Crowdsourcing Design Ideas from New Yorkers

By the City / For the City is a two-part open call for ideas that asks New Yorkers where they see potential for improvement in the cityÊ ¼s urban fabric, and then asks the international design community to respond to the challenges set forth by the public.  From now through April 30th,  the Institute for Urban Design (IfUD) will be collecting suggestions through this form at urbandesignweek.org.  You can tell designers what sites and  characteristics of your neighborhood, borough–or even the entire city–are underutilized or  need a thorough re-imagining. The IfUD aims to  reframe the debate about the future of the cityÊ ¼s public spaces. They hope that together, citizens and designers alike can represent an atlas of possibility for the cityÊ ¼s future, which will provide the foundation for the first-ever Urban Design Week from September 15—20, 2011.

Urban Design Week will be a public festival created to engage New Yorkers in the collaborative process of city-making, including the complex issues of the public realm, and to celebrate the streetscapes, sidewalks and public spaces at the heart of city life. From May 16 through June 17, architects, planners, and designers will be enlisted to  develop proposals that address these myriad sites and situations. A jury of distinguished architects andurbanists, including IfUD board members Michael Sorkin and Winka Dubbeldam, will review designersÊ ¼proposals and highlight exemplary ideas for the future of the city. The results will be compiled to create a  publication and exhibition, By the City / For the City: An Atlas of Possibility for the Future of New York.

Submit your ideas today!