Scale It Up: Lower East Side was a public program in collaboration with L.E.S. Ready, BIG, GOLES, Van Alen Institute, Sandy Storyline, LMCC, Two Bridges, LES Ecology Center, and Hester Street Collaborative. Together, we organized a story-writing workshop and thank you party for local residents. Attendees were asked to think of a creative story line that incorporated Sandy into its plot. As guests wrote creative narratives, they celebrated their post-Sandy rebuilding and planning work.

About Scale it Up

Van Alen Institute was one of four New York-based nonprofits selected to develop and manage Rebuild by Design, an initiative of President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Scale it Up was a series of public events for the project held throughout the region to engage the broadest possible public around the theme of resilience.

Produced by Van Alen Institute, Scale it Up was designed to achieve multiple goals:

• Engage key stakeholders in a planning group to develop and produce each event
• Make the work of RBD design teams immediate and tangible through hands-on activities or temporary interventions in the built environment
• Attract diverse audiences, including those that might not normally participate in design and planning workshops, through performances, music, participatory workshops, and other tools
• Support local planning and design initiatives to promote resilience or strengthen communities, in order to leverage each one-day program to have a larger impact after its completion.

Based on geographic and demographic diversity and the involvement of one or more design teams in the area, Rebuild by Design selected five locations to host these events:  Asbury Park, New Jersey; Bridgeport, Connecticut; and Far Rockaway (Queens), the Lower East Side (Manhattan), and Staten Island’s North Shore in New York City.

Beginning in December, in each community Van Alen Institute invited local residents, nonprofit staff, business owners, and government officials – many of whom were learning about Rebuild by Design for the first time – to participate in planning an event centered around the theme of resilience as they defined that term. Over the next 2-3 months, Van Alen convened regular Scale it Up planning meetings while also coordinating closely with the design teams. This process ensured that each event had elements uniquely tailored to local communities that were also tied to themes and strategies proposed by the teams. Stakeholders felt greater investment in the larger RBD project, while the design teams were able to incorporate input from the Scale it Up planning meetings or adjust their outreach meetings accordingly.