Working the System. Damon Rich, New Jersey

Nearly everywhere, development is contested on bases of environmental impact, historic preservation, justice, affordability, aesthetics and more.

Our 20th-century project of hitching the democratic will to landscape-shaping tools of planning, zoning, public hearings, and other forms of participation remains dreadfully incomplete and widely dissatisfying. What will it take for the People finally to work the System? From struggles with private developers over spiky fences to building a bright orange boardwalk along a horribly polluted river, Damon Rich will share recent attempts to bring design and politics to productive crisis.
Text: Damon Rich

Damon Rich
Designer, planner, and visual artist. From 2008 to 2015, he served as Planning Director & Chief Urban Designer for Newark, New Jersey, where he led negotiations on more than US$2 billion of real estate development, designed the city’s first riverfront parks, and drafted the first comprehensive update to the city’s zoning regulations in 60 years. In 1997, Damon founded the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), an internationally recognized nonprofit organization that uses art and design to increase meaningful civic engagement. His design work represented the United States at the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale and has been exhibited internationally.

Respondenz:
Sabine Gretner, Architektin, Caritas Bereichsleiterin Gemeinwesenarbeit
Bernhard Steger, Architekt, Magistrat der Stadt Wien

Kuratierung und Moderation: Gabu Heindl, ÖGFA