Two faculty and a graduate student are the recipients of Independent Project Grants from the Architectural League of New York and the NY State Council of the Arts. Credit: Jin Hao (Vincent) Wu and Hung Fai Tang, "You(th) Fab."
Two faculty members and one graduate student of the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at The City College of New York have received 2025 Independent Projects grants from the New York State Council on the Arts in conjunction with the Architectural League of New York.
Each $10,000 award was granted for a self-generated year-long project in design practice and research that sought to answer the question of where design can go next. In the 2025 cycle, 25 proposals were selected out of 176 applications by a panel of 12 designers and educators.
The CCNY grant recipients are:
Assistant Professor Laura Sara Wainer for “The Design Turn: Unpacking Incentives, Values, and Impacts in New York City’s Affordable Housing Architecture” in both Westchester and New York City. The project investigates the “design turn” in New York City’s affordable housing, where rising design ambitions meet deepening scarcity. It examines how architects, policymakers, developers, and residents define and negotiate “good” design, and whether these aspirations expand access to quality housing or reproduce new forms of exclusion. The project aims to identify design strategies that align aesthetic ambitions with housing justice;
Adjunct Lecturer Anoushae Eirabie with Zach Blaue for “Newburgh Tools: Forage & Fabrication Lab.” It identifies and activates high-impact, low-cost sustainable material strategies in the context of urban placemaking through the design and construction of a community tool library. The lab aims to remediate soil, sow and harvest materials on the neglected site, forage waste and surplus substances from the surrounding environment, and implement community workshops to prototype these resources for use in the walls of the building and beyond; and
Graduate student Jian Hao (Vincent) Wu with architect Hung Fai Tang for “You(th) Fab: A Mobile Community Design & Fabrication Lab for Youth in Flushing, Queens,” a mobile design lab for underserved youth aged 12 through 18 to bring hands-on workshops and mentorship into public spaces, including building urban benches, neighborhood kiosks, community displays, and cultural signage, to gain skills and cultivate ownership of their neighborhood. Wu connected with Tang through the Spitzer School of Architecture’s participation in the Architectural League’s Mentorship program. Wu is also an Architecture Summer Career Lab alumni.
“It is a tremendous honor to see the Spitzer School recognized once again by the New York State Council on the Arts and the Architectural League of New York," said Dean Marta Gutman. "Our awardees represent the very best of our community's innovative spirit and dedication to expanding the boundaries of design for social impact.”
In 2024, four Spitzer School of Architecture faculty and one alumna were awarded grants.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Lightcast puts at $3.2 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers, and society. At City College, more than 16,500 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity, and scholarship. In 2023, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together,” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College's mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic, and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Thea Klapwald
e:
tklapwald@ccny.cuny.edu