The Center Newsletter: Issue 04

Election Day is approaching, and across the country, people will be making decisions about who they believe is best suited to lead their town, city, or state. As designers of the built environment — architects, landscape architects, and urban planners — we should be paying very close attention to the politics of our communities.

Politics and policy play a critical role in shaping the built environment. Every day, our lives are governed by the spaces we inhabit; spaces that can be either liberating or oppressive.

Design and designers have a role, even a responsibility, that extends beyond physically shaping places and spaces. We must work to make our communities more equitable, inclusive, and accessible. To do so, designers, and the design professions, need to move beyond their traditionally apolitical stance and become more engaged in the politics that shape the built environment.

The thundering silence of the design professions is still prevalent more than 50 years after Whitney Young Jr.’s famous speech to the American Institute of Architects. Buildings, landscapes, and cities exist within complex social, cultural, economic, and political ecosystems.

Creating the right projects for the right reasons is essential to changing people’s lives. As Jason Corburn wrote in Cities for Life, “Improving the built environment doesn’t necessarily improve relations between neighbors or between communities and dehumanizing institutions.”

We must move beyond judging projects solely on aesthetic grounds and instead embrace a spatial justice practice. As Edward Soja defines it, this begins with “the fair and equitable distribution in space of socially valued resources and the opportunities to use them.”

A spatial justice approach requires designers to ask hard questions: Why is this project happening? Who will it benefit? And ultimately, should it be implemented? We must recognize that the built environment is shaped by resource distribution, political structures, and systems of land ownership — as the Royal Institute of British Architects has stated.

In Minneapolis, voters will elect a mayor on Election Day. Beyond housing, a critical issue, the broader built environment, and the spatial justice or injustice within it, has largely been ignored. As the built representation of our policies and priorities, our city reflects our collective choices. As the catalyst for an international reckoning on race, Minneapolis has a greater responsibility to show how the built environment can be a liberator, not an oppressor.

So, designers when you go to the polls on Election Day, think about more than who you will choose. Think about how you will become involved in the political process to make the place you call home a more just, fair, equitable, and inclusive place for everyone.

In solidarity,

Paul Bauknight Jr.

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

Civic Commons in Action: A Moment That Stuck With Me

At the Reimagining the Civic Commons Studio in Cincinnati, I saw what’s possible when residents, advocates, and city leaders come together to shape more connected, resilient communities. From the Mill Creek Greenway to major infrastructure investments, local partners are working to reconnect neighborhoods that have long been cut off, geographically and politically.

We toured these spaces. We heard from city officials like Mayor Aftab Pureval and Councilmember Meeka Owens. We discussed policy, planning, and infrastructure.

But the moment that stuck with me didn’t come from the podium—it came from Daryl. A Vietnam veteran and neighborhood resident, Daryl asked a question that cut through the theory:

“How is any of this helping the people in my neighborhood right now?”

That question reminded me why we do this work—and who it must be accountable to. Because spatial justice isn’t just about new trails or bridges. It’s about whether people like Daryl see real change in their lives.

That’s the lens I’m carrying forward.

In Partnership with MCAD

Earlier this month, Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) published a powerful reflection on Paul Bauknight Jr.’s role as Civic Scholar in Residence and the impact of his work in spatial justice.

The article explores how Paul’s approach to design invites students to think critically about policy, power, and place.

“Space is never neutral,” the article reads. “It is shaped by policy, power, and history—and thus, it can harm or heal.”

Through his mentorship, students are encouraged to see the city as a living classroom. Leadership is taught not as a title, but as a way of building trust, asking hard questions, and including more people in the decisions that shape our communities.

From mapping policy to co-creating with residents, Paul helps students apply spatial justice principles through real-world practice. His work centers memory, culture, and connection while pushing for systems that serve people, not displace them.

Read the full article published by : https://www.mcad.edu/posts/architecture-belonging

What We’re Reading

At The Center, we believe that design is not neutral—and that reading is one way we sharpen our collective lens for justice. This month, we’re spotlighting two powerful resources that challenge how we think about design, power, and repair:

Design Against Racism by Omari Souza

"Omari's book is food for my soul." — Paul Bauknight Jr.

This new release from our very first podcast guest, Omari Souza, is part historical reckoning, part design manifesto. It blends theory, case studies, and restorative frameworks to show how design can either reinforce racism or be a tool for real transformation.

From Hip-Hop Architecture to Afrofuturism as a design strategy, Souza’s essays invite practitioners, educators, and changemakers to ask harder questions about whose stories we’re telling and who benefits from our work. This is essential reading for anyone committed to a spatial justice approach.

[Explore the Book]

A Century Later, Tulsa’s Mayor Moves to Compensate Massacre Survivors

CityLab reports on a bold initiative in Tulsa, where Mayor Monroe Nichols is raising $105 million to support survivors and descendants of the 1921 Race Massacre through housing, cultural preservation, small business support, and education in the Historic Greenwood District.

While Nichols doesn’t call it reparations, the “Road to Repair” program reflects the kind of forward-looking leadership our cities need—where policy becomes a tool for place-based justice and generational healing.

[Read the Article]

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