About
Helping create equitable cities through inclusive design.
303 Bond Street
Brooklyn, NY 11232
212-360-4374
Drop us a line: vai@vanalen.org
Press inquiries: press@vanalen.org

Our Mission
Van Alen Institute helps create equitable cities through inclusive design. In an equitable city, communities are engaged in the conception and creation of their built environment, regardless of income or personal circumstances. Community-driven decision-making builds resilience, social infrastructure, and ultimately, more just cities.
For 128 years, our purposeful community engagement, convening capacity, and global network have produced profound transformations in the public realm of New York City and beyond. With an an interdisciplinary approach to design, the Van Alen team has backgrounds in architecture, arts and culture, civic advocacy, community engagement, preservation, and public policy.
Our Beliefs
Our environments shape every aspect of our lives, though we do not yet fully understand how. We must develop a better understanding of how we are affected by them, and work hard to improve those environments for people everywhere.
Design is a crucial tool for tackling complex social, ecological, and cultural challenges. It is a tool for analysis, breaking down seemingly intractable problems into their constituent parts. Design can identify and define problems, and propose new solutions. It can communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively, allowing people to visualize a different future and the steps it will take to enable that change.
We believe that solving persistent and tough problems requires many skills, and that the best solutions come from a collaborative process among different fields. We work hard to connect these disparate groups, translate among communities and disciplines, and catalyze fresh thinking.
And just as we need the skills of many fields, we need a range of tools to address different kinds of problems. For us, these tools are competitions, research projects, and public programs. We believe that they have a symbiotic relationship, and that used together, these three tools will allow us to better understand the ways our environments affect us, and help us to develop projects that impact those environments for the better, both locally and globally.
This interdisciplinary approach must take hold in communities, in schools, among policymakers, and in professional practice. We believe that design professionals must reexamine their collective role in shaping the world we live in, and in how we can improve people’s everyday lives.
Ideas can change the world: We believe that individual projects can be catalytic, and though the processes and thinking they set in motion may take years or even decades to fully mature, these projects are an important part of our work.
Who We Are
Staff
Deborah Marton
Executive Director
Stacey Anderson
Associate Director, Business Development and Special Initiatives
Diana Araujo
Project Manager, Programs
Andrew Brown
Director of Programs
Annie Ferreira
Development Associate
Scott Kelly
Communications and Graphic Design Associate
Alisha Kim Levin
Director of Communications
Kate Overbeck
Director of Development
Ren Reese
Managing Director
Board
Carla Swickerath
Partner, Studio Libeskind
Jared Della Valle
CEO & Founder, Alloy
Mark Johnson
President, Civitas
Jenn Gustetic
Director of Early Stage Innovations and Partnerships, NASA
Hana Kassem
Principal, KPF
Raymond Quinn
Principal, Arup
Michael Bednark
CEO, Bednark Studio Inc.
Robert Bernstein
Partner, Holland & Knight
Raudline Etienne
Founder & Managing Partner, Daraja Capital
Mark Gardner
Principal, Jaklitsch / Gardner Architects
Sarah Williams Goldhagen
Author & Architecture Critic
Casey Jones
Director of Civic Projects, Perkins&Will
Latoya Kamdang
Director of Operations, Moody Nolan
Mikyoung Kim
Principal, Mikyoung Kim Design
May Lee
Partner, The Seelig Group
Sandy Lee
Managing Director, Kinneret Group
Nnenna Lynch
Founder, Xylem Projects
Daniel Maldonado
DPR Construction
Kia Weatherspoon
Founder, Determined by Design
Allison Freedman Weisberg
Founder & Executive Director, Recess
Byron Bell
Byron Bell Architects & Planners
Council
Carl Bäckstrand
Partner & Vice President, White
Alfredo Caraballo
Partner, Allies and Morrison
Daniel Elsea
Director, Allies and Morrison
Mark Johnson
President, Civitas
Monica von Schmalensee
CEO, White
Steven Baumgartner
Director, Baumgartner Urban Systems Strategy
Jonas Edblad
Partner, Wingårdhs Arkitektkontor
Denzil Gallagher
Principal, BuroHappold Engineering
Tyler McIntyre
Partner, Design and Construction, Fairstead
Nat Oppenheimer
Executive Vice President/Principal, Silman
Chris Reed
Founding Director, Stoss Landscape Urbanism
Carol E. Rosenthal
Partner, Real Estate, Fried Frank
Benjamin G. Saxe
Executive Director, Studio Saxe
S. Bry Sarté
Founder, Sherwood Design Engineers
Susanna Sirefman
President, Dovetail Design Strategists
Gary Sorge
Vice President, Director of Landscape Architecture, Stantec
Kishore Varanasi
Director of Urban Design, CBT
Erik Verboon
Principal, Managing Director, Walter P Moore
Amy Whitesides
Director, Stoss Landscape Urbanism
Barbara Wilks
Principal and Founder, W Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Gert Wingårdh
Founder, Wingårdhs Arkitektkontor
Our History
1894 – 1955
Society for Beaux-Arts Architecture
We started with a commitment to accessible design education, founded in the aesthetics of the Beaux-Arts era.
1956 – 1995
National Institute for Architectural Education
Over time, we expanded beyond a particular style, and came to understand the power of design professionals to do good in the world.
1996 – 2019
Van Alen Institute: Projects in Public Places
With a belief that design can transform cities, landscapes, and regions to improve people’s lives, we developed research, public programs, and design competitions.
2020 – present
Van Alen Institute, today
We help create equitable cities through inclusive design. Community-driven decision-making builds resilience, social infrastructure, and more just cities.