As a collaborative community design/build component of our East Village Homes affordable housing project, Leroy Street Studio hosted a series of design/build workshops with Grand Street Settlement's AmeriCorps students to create new metal facade panels for the new project on East Houston Street. The workshops initially introduced students to a range of design concepts and then the students explored the Lower East Side neighborhood to develop a sense of the site and context. Workshops continued remotely after Covid stay-at-home orders went into effect. The group's preliminary concepts were further developed, potential designs were then reviewed and finalized by the group for fabrication.

LSS partners presented the evolution of our community-engaged design work from the initial founding of Hester Street to our current participatory design projects with local organizations. With a focus on alternative modes of learning and spatial injustice, the Symposium explored different architectural pedagogies and ideas of expanded engagement to better shape the world around us.

LSS architects are working with Riverdale Country School students for a high school enrichment program that explores creative outdoor dining solutions during the pandemic. Students will participate in on-site field work, design work and production, and collaboration with restaurateurs, architects, and city officials.

Archinect interviewed LSS partners Marc Turkel, Morgan Hare, and Shawn Watts for its weekly feature Studio Snapshot about LSS's growth process, integration of disciplines, and community outreach over the firm's 25 years.

LSS Partner Shawn Watts discussed our architecture and participatory design work on BPL's Sunset Park Library as part of the 11th edition of AIANY Interior Committee's Speed Presetations last July.

LSS's East Village Homes located on East Houston Street on New York's Lower East Side recently topped out at 14-stories. Once complete, the building will bring 45 units of much needed affordable housing to the neighborhood.

Award-winning Alley Pond Environmental Center started construction this summer. This new environmental center will host 50,000 NYC public school students and will expand APEC's teaching environment both indoors and out for an immersive learning experience based on the upland and tidal wetland flora and fauna.

The latest exhibit in our Allen Street Gallery, Behind the Screens, took an in-depth look at the process behind bringing community-engaged design to capital projects.