The Center Newsletter: Issue 02

CTUD
Jun 30, 2025
3 min read

Dear Community,

This summer, I’ve been reflecting and strategizing on what it means and how to hold just space. The Center has been working across neighborhoods, institutions, disciplines, and generations, we are called to create spaces for connection, history, and healing.

From the State of Black Design Conference at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) in June to the St. Paul Learning Journey in July, we’ve had the opportunity to gather, share, and deepen our collective commitment to transforming our cities and ourselves. These weren’t just events. They were reminders that spatial justice is as much about listening and healing as it is about building and design.

With gratitude,

Paul Bauknight Jr.

Founder and President, The Center for Transformative Urban Design (The Center)

Host of My Black Space podcast

Launching August: My Black Space Podcast

Click here for a quick introduction to My Black Space podcast – a platform for exploring the intersections of place, power, and justice through conversations that center Black stories and lived experiences. I hope you’ll listen, subscribe, and share.

Reimagining the Civic Commons in St. Paul

A Learning Journey Rooted in Place and People

From July 10th to 12th, over 40 urban space practitioners joined us in St. Paul for a curated experience co-hosted with Reimagining the Civic Commons. We explored themes of connection, history, and healing, grounded in the lived realities of a region still navigating the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder.

We toured spaces across Rondo, Frogtown, Payne-Phalen, and the ancestral grounds of Wicahpi (formerly Indian Mounds Park). We met the people doing the everyday work of building community through art, health, storytelling, and design.

Cities are more than built structures. They are living ecosystems shaped by memory, movement and policy. This experience reminded us that just and transformative design must begin with the people who call these places home.

State of Black Design

Healing and Expression on Juneteenth

Held on Juneteenth at MCAD, the State of Black Design Conference was a moment of gathering, reflection, and action. It brought together Black designers, advocates, and allies to uplift design excellence and organize for the future.

I was honored to present Baldwin Square, a restorative urban space rooted in spatial justice, community participation and liberation. A place for design, urbanism, knowledge, and hope.

As part of a fast moving, engaging presentation, I shared my belief that architecture should be a tool for liberation. Not just changing how things look, but how spaces feel.

We came together not to mourn, but to build. We chose that ground intentionally, to honor the past and design toward a more just future.

[Links to add; Baldwin Square]

Beyond the Tracks

A Conversation on Transit, Power and Community Benefit

On June 25, we hosted Beyond the Tracks at MCAD, a public conversation focused on how the Blue Line Extension light rail can serve as more than a transportation project. It was a moment to ask ourselves what it truly means to build beyond the tracks.

Our distinguished national panelists shared bold ideas about how culture, community wealth, and equity must be at the center of development. Jason Foster of Destination Crenshaw spoke about using cultural storytelling to resist displacement. Elwood Hopkins, Emerging Markets, Inc. and Taidgh McClory, THMAdvisors pushed us to ask who benefits from investments and how we can spread opportunity more equitably. Taylor Smrikárova of Redesign highlighted the need for participation and ownership as Minneapolis evolves.

This wasn’t just about transit. It was about leveraging the opportunity that transit brings to create greater quality of life for communities along the line and reimagining who leads and benefits from change.

The Center Newsletter: Issue 02

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