Block Builder
Enable, create & sensemaking people's vision of their block.
Funded by City Artist Corps Grant.
Project Overview
NYC is always in a state of flux. Residents have a hard time keeping up with change, and having their voices heard. Often they don’t have the tools, access, or aren’t even invited to envision how they want their neighborhood to feel, look like, or what services the neighborhood needs.
Block Builder is an act of participatory futuring. Attendees are asked to build their block; either their current block, their dream block, or whatever block they want. We will give residents the tools – stamps, stickers, pens, etc – to create and share their visions. We will then record and archive their work, and ask them to share it on their social media, with their community, and with people they hold dear.
We will take the Block Builder toolkit to multiple sites around the Long Island City, Queens neighborhoods to gather neighbor’s views. We can setup in parks (such as Gantry Park), the Queens Library, and outside major subway stations (E/M, G, 7) as the setup footprint is small. Part of the artwork is negotiating and working with different civic assets to help neighbors tell their hopes, dreams, and future vision.
We will then synthesize patterns from these engagements looking to see what our neighbors want in their community, sharing themes, patterns, and learnings. Our hunch is that there is considerable overlap in what we all want, but considerable disagreement. I aim to uncover what and where we agree, and where we stand apart.
Project Objectives
To better understand a broad set of sentiments about what people desire on their block. We have lots of hunches, but we want to test them.
Project Development
Here's a short overview of how this project is evolving.
Scaled Elevations
3d tests
Ink Stamp tests
Inspiration
A selection from my inspiration folder (apologies to the original photographers).
Project Support
Special thanks to the City Artist Corps Grant, which made this project possible. Thanks to New York Foundation for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Mayor's Office of Media & Entertainment, and the Queens Theatre for your support.
Contribute
If you are interested in attending a vision session, please signup for our newsletter, which we will announce all session dates.
Other Engagement Projects
Check out these other civic engagement projects we created.
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Expedition Works, LLC; New York.
Listen to our podcast:
A conversation about cities, architecture, history, and why these affect us today. Hosted by Randy Plemel and a weekly cast of characters.
In this episode we speak with Sam Starr, a cargo bike expert about what our cities might look like if we shift some (or a substantial amount) of our in-city freight traffic from giant potential trucks to cargo bikes. Listen to Episode 006 with Sandra Rothbard for more freight pod.
Guest Bio
Sam Starr is a distinguished Sustainable Freight and Cycle Logistics consultant, co-founder of the North American Cargo Bike Conference by Our Greenway, and a trailblazer in the decarbonizing of goods movement. With over 15 years of expertise in logistics and supply chain, including roles at FedEx Services, Flash Global, US Pack Logistics, and others, Sam has recently played a pivotal role in transforming sustainable logistics, driving academic studies and cycle logistics pilots across Canada. A sought-after speaker at conferences like those hosted by the Association for Supply Chain Management, International Cargo Bike Festival, and the United Nations Economic Commission, Sam holds degrees in Electrical and Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and is a graduate of the Master of Engineering Leadership program in Urban Systems at the University of British Columbia. Passionate about sustainable cities and cutting-edge mobility, Sam stands out as a visionary leader shaping the future of environmentally responsible logistics systems.
“The future is very bright for cargo bikes, but we need to start thinking about it as that ecosystem. And this is not just for businesses, it’s for everybody.”
Connected Episodes
In this episode we speak with freight expert Sandra Rothbard, who is an urban planner specializing in freight transportation. After working for public agencies in NYC on city logistics, disaster preparedness and solid waste management, she now supports public, private and non-profit organizations around the world as an independent consultant. She focuses on building sustainable, resilient and safe streets, healthy communities and efficient and economic supply chains.
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“What I and my colleagues, would like to see, is a definition between what is a regular, family use cargo bike that might as well just be a regular e-bike. So that’d be one category and then another category that’s maybe more on the mid size scale that allows for heavier duty goods requires maybe a bit of training to use them but this is still carrying a I’ll call it a mid weight. And then a higher, heavier duty category that’s looking at 800 pounds, 700, 800 pounds of payload and more, and that these get regulated at these different levels.”
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