Justice by Design Teen Architecture Lab
Queens Public Library
Innovation Synopsis
Justice by Design (JBD) is an architectural design lab for teens at QPL’s Far Rockaway branch, funded by a two-year grant from the Queens District Attorney’s Office as part of its Community Youth Development and Crime Prevention Project. Teens with roots in Far Rockaway, a historically underdeveloped neighborhood in Queens, explored the intersection of design, safety, opportunity, and life outcomes in their community. With guidance from NYC architects and designers, participants spent 16 weeks conceptualizing a space that would help make Far Rockaway more equitable and translating their vision into a 3D model.
Challenge/Opportunity
This program leverages civic, creative, and equity-focused learning to:
• Empower youth to see the built environment not as fixed or beyond their influence, but as something they can improve and change.
• Guide students through the mathematics, engineering, and artistic techniques central to architectural design.
• Explore Far Rockaway’s political history and contemporary context to examine the intersection of justice and the built environment and shed light on why some neighborhoods have robust infrastructure while others do not.
• Foster critical awareness of the challenges facing a historically underserved community while recognizing and celebrating its existing strengths, assets, culture, and resilience.
Key Elements of Innovation
Combining research, hands-on work, and mentorship, 18 participants across two cohorts explored design policy and its impact on accessibility, safety, and connectivity; studied Far Rockaway’s development history; engaged with design professionals; and created and presented their own designs.
JBD helps break down barriers to design careers for underrepresented groups, as Black and Latino architects comprising just 2% and 7% of the profession, respectively. In partnership with BOLT Architecture in Brooklyn and the Center for Architecture in Manhattan, JBD harnesses QPL as a place where teens can understand and reimagine their environment, explore justice through the built environment, exhibit original work, and learn from professionals, serving as an innovative model for engaging young people in design, equity, and their communities.
Achieved Outcomes
JBD has engaged more than 30 teens and helped establish a culture of innovative, justice-centered programming at the newly built Far Rockaway branch. Participants showed an understanding of equity and the forces that shape their community. One said that the presence of “liquor stores” and “smoke shops” can limit productivity, while another noted that the community “has been affected by redlining.”
Participants showed their work to 350 attendees at QPL’s Community Justice Fair, including elected officials, judges, and reps from the Queens DA’s Office. Twelve design professionals also provided feedback during a private critique (“Crit”).
Participants also met with NYC Department of Design and Construction Commissioner to discuss the value of QPL’s new Far Rockaway branch. Four models from the 2026 cohort -- a food museum, women’s wellness center, community theater, and café -- were selected for a public exhibition at the Center for Architecture this fall.
