Excerpted from the story in Architect’s Newspaper.

Neighborhoods Now, a design-driven COVID-19 recovery initiative launched in mid-June by the Van Alen Institute in partnership with the Urban Design Forum. Pairing community organizations with coordinating interdisciplinary design firms to form five dedicated working groups, the initiative was established with the mission to aid in the rebounding and reopening of a quartet of New York City neighborhoods disproportionately impacted—both financially and in terms of mortality rates—by the crisis due to “long-term structural inequality and racism” per the Brooklyn-based Van Alen Institute.