Street Lab
2025 - $15,000 Open Street, Brownsville, Brooklyn
Street Lab transforms streets and public spaces across New York City into places that improve lives,
strengthen neighborhoods, and bring New Yorkers together. The organization uses a pop-up approach
to do this, relying on custom physical designs to create innovative places for reading, play, creativity,
and more. Every pop-up is by request and in partnership with community groups and city
government, and the organization prioritizes low-income, underserved areas. Its approach brings
immediate benefits to residents, while also laying the groundwork for long-term change.
Street Lab achieves its goals in three ways. First, it deploys its pop-up programs citywide, activating
public spaces and enabling people of all ages and abilities to gather, learn, and create right on the
street. Second, it helps community groups develop new cultural and community hubs using the city’s
Open Streets program. Third, it designs and builds pop-up infrastructure that brings new ideas to the
streets, used by our team, partners, and other cities around the world. The organization also offers
several youth education programs that involve young people in all aspects of its work.
Street Lab was founded in 2006. Early projects focused on vacant lots and storefronts. In 2011, the
organization shifted outdoor spaces like parks, plazas, and streets, launching a portable reading room
for New York City that still operates today. Since then, the range of programs and services Street Lab
offers has expanded and the organization has provided over 3040 days of programming in 501 NYC
public spaces, reaching more than 160,000 New Yorkers. Street Lab has also helped create more than
40 Open Streets and shipped its designs to more than 75 other cities.