I’m James, and I experiment with art-making, model-building, and play to engage Latino immigrants in urban planning.
I work to raise people’s awareness of the built environment and how it impacts their experience of place. In my work, I have found model-building and play to be particular effective in engaging youth, immigrants, and women—people who have felt they had no voice or role in how their environments are shaped.
Our approach is engineered to break down barriers in the planning process by making community engagement accessible through location, method and venue. By allowing people from all walks of life to generate new ideas, we help give them back over their own built environment.
CNU
CNU works to make planning more accessible and inclusive through programs like our annual Congress and Legacy Charrettes, as well as our community-driven Educations and Trainings. Additionally, our equity work—through projects like HUD’s Hope VI program and our own Highways to Boulevards initiative—helps promote practices that build places to serve all users, regardless of background.
