Placemaking Evaluation Fellowship

The Van Alen Placemaking Evaluation Fellowship provides hands-on experience evaluating the power of design to bring life to public spaces. Van Alen seeks 6 undergraduate and graduate students to evaluate the quality of public life at 2-3 sites in New York City using the tools and methods of Gehl, a pioneer in understanding how design of public spaces can improve civic life.

Participants gain the opportunity to learn valuable skills in evaluating public spaces, while exploring the city through Van Alen’s co-produced installations and programs, and sharing their insights and skills with Van Alen’s community organization partners. 

• In-person training on using Gehl’s Public Life Tools
• Collecting data on-site at the Van Alen Block Party in Gowanus (October 1, 2022)
• Collecting data on-site at 2-3 future installations co-produced by Van Alen Institute in Brooklyn and/or Manhattan
• Educational workshop on methodologies for observing and analyzing public life in public spaces
• Learning how insights are applied in Van Alen’s partner organizations
• Field trip to share fellows’ observations and skills with Van Alen’s community partners in Albany, NY

Fellows will receive a stipend of $1800 for participation in the program.

• Week of September 26, 2022: Fellows selected + in-person training on Gehl’s Public Life Tools
• October 1, 2022: Data Collection at Van Alen Institute’s Block Party
• Early December: Pre-installation data collection
• Late December 2022/Early January 2023: Post-installation data collection
• Early February 2023: Pre-installation data collection
• Mid March 2023/Early April 2023: Post-installation data collection
• June 2023/July 2023: Field trip to Albany, NY to share observations and learnings with Albany Design Fellows

If you are interested, please contact Didintle Ntsie at dntsie@vanalen.org by Tuesday, September 27, 2022 at 6 pm EST.