When California native Michael K. Chen launched his namesake New York-based architecture firm in late 2011, he focused the practice on examining the future of urban infrastructure and how communities work together. This approach became the impetus for some of the firm’s more rewarding work, including pro bono projects like the Children’s Library at Concourse House in the Bronx in 2018, which serves single mothers transitioning out of homelessness. “That project was eye-opening,” Chen says. “It was incredibly meaningful for everyone on the team.” Since then, MKCA has been committed to similar types of work, something the pandemic only accelerated.
At the onset of COVID-19, Chen gathered industry friends and colleagues together for weekly video calls to share stories and advice. “Design studios tend to hold their situation and resources a little close to the chest. It’s the nature of healthy competition,” he says. But with 20 to 30 people from different small firms all opening up during a tumultuous time for many, Chen was inspired to build something more concrete. Enter Design Advocates, an organization dedicated to leveraging design assets and capabilities through collaborative pro bono work and advocacy. “COVID is architectural in a way,” he points out. “It concerns our ability to be indoors and be with each other, or not to be with each other.”
The Children’s Library at Concourse House in the Bronx, New York, a pro bono project for Chen, features an illuminated shelving unit as its central attraction
What started with five firms has expanded to 250 companies and volunteers, with 150 projects ranging from circulation plans for restaurants and schools, outdoor plumbing and seating plans for performing arts institutions throughout New York, and an art gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn specifically highlighting the work of artists with disabilities. Recent projects in Michigan and California, including an outdoor learning environment for the Healthy Hearts Institute, have expanded the organization’s reach.
Now, Design Advocates is largely focused on New York’s now-permanent Open Streets outdoor dining program, which closes select streets to traffic, even down to designing new roadblocks to replace NYPD barricades. One lesson the organization has had to learn, however, is how to approach the community. “We can’t just waltz into a disadvantaged community and say ‘We’re experts, we’re here to do things for you,’” Chen explains. For example, the team identified eight blocks in Elmhurst, Queens—chosen partially for their social benefit, like proximity to public schools. Chen worked with the community board to get them involved so they didn’t feel as if the program was “imposed upon them without consultation or feedback,” he says. “[We’re trying to build] community buy-in and pair that with the technical expertise we’re able to bring. Those two things together become the basis for advocacy with city agencies.”
A Carnegie Hill apartment in Manhattan features a formal entrance gallery clad in cerused oak
The results, as the city has committed to adopting much of the new outdoor infrastructure in a post-pandemic world, is no small feat compared to how New York has operated for decades. “For the last hundred years, advocates have been pushing for the street to be for something other than cars and parking,” Chen says. “We’ve all latched onto this once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine the street and greatly improve it. [We are] trying to make sure designers have a seat at the table.”
This article originally appeared in HD’s June/July 2021 issue.
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