On November 13, 2019, the Construction Guide team was invited to attend the 7th Annual Fall Fete. The event is organized by the Institute for Public Architecture and was held at JACK studios, 601 West 26 Street, New York. The purpose of this event is to honor the intersection of architecture and social justice, a very noble cause.
This 7th Fete was dedicated to several outstanding people of honor: Vicky Been, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development; Mary Miss, Artist and Founder of CALL; and Tony Griffin, Professor in Practice of Urban Planning at Harvard GSD. They won the Public Service Award, Artist for Public Architecture Award, and the Social Justice Design Award, respectively.
The IPA works to challenge social and physical inequities, and based their 2018 residency in Queens. Their mission was to get the citizens of Queens involved in redevelopment plans to create recreational spaces that worked for the people they served. The IPA worked closely with community members, public servants and Queens Museum to come up with innovative and socially relevant spaces.
Construction Guide founder, Ilya Lugintsev, had this to say: “We find this organization to be an inspiring vehicle for driving human generosity through the reincarnation of parks and playgrounds in the most neglected areas of US cities. Their idea is to simply help kids and those most in need to have healthy lives and access to recreational spaces.”
We at Construction Guide fully support the IPA’s mission to challenge the issues faced by citizens, particularly in how they access spaces around them. We applaud their collaborative approach, and feel it aligns with the Construction Guide model.
