The Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship

Fellow Profile

Tara Siegel

“Being a Rose Fellow in New York City comes with an extraordinary number of challenges and opportunities. One of the most valuable lessons I have learned is the importance of patience, persistence, and partnerships with other individuals and organizations in all of my work.”

— Tara Siegel

Fellowship Host:
Pratt Center for Community Development
New York, NY

Tara Siegel’s Rose Fellowship with New York’s Pratt Center for Community Development proved a valuable step in a career already dedicated to community development. As co-chair of the New Housing New York (NHNY) Steering Committee, Tara led a team of professionals and city agencies through the organization, development and implementation of a remarkable competition for a multi-family housing project in the Bronx.

Billed as the first-ever, juried, architect-developer design competition for affordable and sustainable housing in New York City, the competition was supported by a $30,000 Enterprise grant, and the site was won by Phipps Rose Dattner Grimshaw. Tara’s tasks included forming collaborations between several agencies, among them the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Other triumphs of Tara’s fellowship work included helping to ensure that 60 units of affordable rental housing with space for a farmer’s market would be developed on an East New York site. In addition, she served on advisory boards for the NY City Council and the NYC Administration for Children’s Services planning and setting policy for early childhood facilities within the city.

Today, Tara continues to work in New York in the community design field as program manager in architecture and planning for the Low Income Investment Fund. Tara holds a master of architecture from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a B.A. in architectural studies from the University of Washington. She recently completed a book that documents the process of the NHNY Legacy Project Competition, and is in the process of writing a child care facility design and development guide.

Gallery

(hover over image to zoom)

Tara Siegel
by Chi Ying Shen
Postcard announcing the New Housing New York Legacy Project (NHNY) competition.
by Karen Kubey
Tara working with a group of community members at a NHNY program and design workshop in the Bronx.
by Tara Siegel
Community members voting on priorities for the NHNY affordable housing development in the Bronx.
by Google Earth
Aerial view of the vacant NYC Cornerstone Site on New Lots Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn, which is used for a farmer’s market in the summer. Tara prepared a winning proposal for this site which included 60 units of affordable housing and a farmer’s market.
by Tara Siegel
Rendering of the housing design for the NYC Cornerstone Site in East New York, “New Lots Plaza.”
by Tara Siegel
Youth from the United Community Center (UCC) in East New York selling produce at the Farmer’s Market on New Lots Avenue. The UCC has an urban agriculture program and a large community garden where youth interns grow and harvest produce all year round.
by Tara Siegel
Sign for the United Community center Garden in East New York, Brooklyn.
Children at the United Community Child Care Center in East New York, Brooklyn. Tara has been working with the UCC on planning and development for expansion of the child care facility.
by Tara Siegel
Markham Gardens, Staten Island, New York. Tara helped organize a group of public housing tenants in an effort to save this unique New York City Housing Authority development from demolition.
by Tara Siegel
A tenant meeting at Markham Gardens.
by Noel Toro
Rose Fellows at a retreat in New York City, October 2004.