People who participated in Schoolyard Visions

Francisca Benitez (born Chile 1974) is a New York based artist and retired architect. She has been involved with CUP since 2001, when her first vid…

Francisca Benitez (born Chile 1974) is a New York based artist and retired architect. She has been involved with CUP since 2001, when her first video was featured in Building Codes: The Programmable City at Storefront for Art and Architecture. Since then, she has shown her work at Centre de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona in Spain, Exit Art in New York, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Santiago, Chile, and Futura in Prague, to name a few. Francisca studied architecture at the University of Chile, art at the MFA program at Hunter College in New York (currently) and at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris. She has collaborated with countless artists, organizations and journals including Quaderns (Spain), ARQ (Chile), the International Center for Urban Ecology (ICUE, Detroit), and the New York Housing Authority. She currently teaches in our program, in NYCHA community centers and sings with the band Nutria.

Francisca Benitez has worked on The Programmable City, Building Codes, The Subsidized Landscape, Schoolyard Visions, Green Information Center

Damon Rich is an urban designer working at the grisly intersection of design, policy, and the public. His exhibitions use video, sculpture, graphic…

Damon Rich is an urban designer working at the grisly intersection of design, policy, and the public. His exhibitions use video, sculpture, graphics, and photography to investigate the political economy of the built environment. His work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Storefront for Art and Architecture and SculptureCenter (New York City), the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst (Liepzig), and Netherlands Architecture Institute (Rotterdam). In 1997, he founded the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people understand and change the places they live, where he served as Creative Director for 10 years. Damon has taught design at institutions including the Parsons School of Design, Heritage High School, the Brooklyn Museum, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, and the Queens Library Adult Learning Center. He writes about architecture and politics for publications including the Village Voice, the Nation, Metropolis, and Architecture magazine. Damon has been awarded a New York State Council on the Arts award for his work with adult literacy and architecture, as well as a fellowship from the MacDowell Colony for his work on the history of urban renewal. In 2007, Damon was selected as a Loeb Fellow in Advanced Environmental Studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and an Artist-in-Residence at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, where he developed a pedagogical exhibition on architecture, real estate, and finance.

Damon Rich has worked on Public Housing 101, PHTV: What's up with public housing?, Building Codes, Building Codes, Coding Communities, Garbage Problems, Gautreaux v. Urban Renewal, The City without a Ghetto, Urban Renewal Activity Tables, Values & Variety: Shopping on Fulton Street, The Center for Critical Skills, The Subsidized Landscape, The Connection between Abandoned Buildings and Homeless People, Governors Island Points of Interest, Cybercity Walking Tour, Hell's Kitchen South: Developing Strategies, Schoolyard Visions, Detroit Do Your Thing!, However Unspectacular: A New Suburbanism, The Water Underground, Abuse of Power: The SPURA Story, Mind the Gap, Big up, Jamaica!, Spacebombing / Don't mess with this city!, What's Poppin at Fulton Mall?, Code City, Temporary Showroom, Social Security Risk Machine, The Programmable City, Chew On This

Rosten Woo has been producing public education projects with CUP since 1999. He teaches design history and theory at Parsons, the New School for De…

Rosten Woo has been producing public education projects with CUP since 1999. He teaches design history and theory at Parsons, the New School for Design and produces historical research and writing on history, design and public policy for Place Matters, the Municipal Arts Society, Metropolis Magazine and the Village Voice. He has also worked as a researcher and policy analyst for a variety of non-profit organizations including Common Ground Community and the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center. He serves on the board of like-minded non-profits, Place in History and Groundswell Community Mural Project. He received his BA in Government from Cornell University.

Rosten Woo has worked on Entry Sequence, Public Housing 101, PHTV: What's up with public housing?, Building Codes, Coding Communities, Garbage Problems, Urban Renewal Activity Tables, The Programmable City, The City without a Ghetto, The Center for Critical Skills, Values & Variety: Shopping on Fulton Street, Important Housing Rights, The Subsidized Landscape, Schoolyard Visions, Detroit Do Your Thing!, However Unspectacular: A New Suburbanism, The Water Underground, Abuse of Power: The SPURA Story, Mind the Gap, Big up, Jamaica!, Code City, Knoxville: Building Communities, Mapping the Concourse, Temporary Showroom, People and Buildings, Just In/Justice, The Cargo Chain, Building Codes