Campus Pride Jobs

Job Description

About the Agency:

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) promotes quality and affordability in the city’s housing, and diversity and strength in the city’s neighborhoods because every New Yorker deserves a safe, affordable place to live in a neighborhood they love.

• We maintain building and resident safety and health

• We create opportunities for New Yorkers through housing affordability

• We engage New Yorkers to build and sustain neighborhood strength and diversity

HPD is entrusted with fulfilling these objectives through the goals and strategies of “Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness,” Mayor Adams’ comprehensive housing framework. To support this important work, the administration has committed $5 billion in new capital funding, bringing the 10-year planned investment in housing to $22 billion the largest in the city’s history. This investment, coupled with a commitment to reduce administrative and regulatory barriers, is a multi-pronged strategy to tackle New York City’s complex housing crisis, by addressing homelessness and housing instability, promoting economic stability and mobility, increasing homeownership opportunities, improving health and safety, and increasing opportunities for equitable growth---

Your Team:

The Office of Neighborhood Strategies is charged with ensuring that HPD’s development and preservation efforts are guided by meaningful community engagement and coordinated with public investments in infrastructure and services, as put forth in the Mayor’s Housing Plan.

ONS is composed of two divisions and a cross-divisional unit reporting to the Associate Commissioner:

• Planning & Predevelopment (P&P) is central to developing and managing HPD’s housing production pipeline from project proposal phases through the land use review and entitlement process, to ensure that HPD’s investments contribute to building strong, healthy, resilient neighborhoods in all five boroughs.

• Neighborhood Development & Stabilization (ND&S) leads the agency’s commitment to neighborhood planning and strategic preservation through engagement with tenants, landlords, community leaders, and neighborhood stakeholders as we work to enable strong and healthy neighborhoods anchored by affordable housing.

• The Strategic Initiatives Unit leads special ONS initiatives and provides essential technical, planning, and policy support to staff and the Associate Commissioner of Neighborhood Strategies.

Your Impact:

As a Senior Urban Designer for the Office of Neighborhood Strategies, you will provide critical design and zoning services to meet the goals and vision of the Mayor’s Housing Plan. Reporting to the Director of Pre-Development Planning and Urban Design in the Division of Planning and Predevelopment, you will support teams advancing HPD’s new construction pipeline on City-owned sites and within neighborhood planning studies, contributing to the development of vital affordable housing and neighborhood amenities across New York City. By ensuring that future development is based on sound zoning and design assumptions and informed by community input, you will play a valuable role in fostering high-quality investments that make a positive impact in neighborhoods.

Your Role:

You will provide vital design, zoning and public engagement support to ONS, including conducting zoning analyses, preparing project massings, gathering and coordinating input from community members, technical experts and agency partners and promoting design quality across ONS projects.

Your Responsibilities:

The Senior Urban Designer will be expected to:

• Conduct design and zoning analyses to assess development potential of select sites for affordable housing and other uses;

• Develop materials, coordinate and facilitate community engagement workshops for housing design and development;

• Plan, create and conduct urban design activities at public-facing workshops to inform neighborhood planning studies, community visioning reports and Requests for Proposals (RFPs);

• Develop community visioning reports as an output from the community engagement process;

• Generate illustrative massing diagrams and other drawings for use in internal and external meetings, including internal charrettes and public-facing neighborhood planning workshops;

• Review select projects for design quality, and promote design excellence across ONS projects;

• Interact with other HPD units and external agencies regarding urban design and zoning topics and initiatives.

Preferred skills

• Urban and architectural design;

• Knowledge of the New York City Zoning Resolution and New York City land use approval processes;

• Proficiency in AutoCAD, Adobe Creative Suite, SketchUp and Microsoft Office applications, including Excel and PowerPoint;

• Excellent project management skills and demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment;

• Ability to collaborate with, and relate to, people from different backgrounds, and to present information clearly to people with varying levels of understanding of design and zoning;

• Familiarity with affordable housing design and construction, and interest in promoting design quality;

• Knowledge of New York City government and housing issues;

• Ability to take initiative and to work both independently and with others;

• Experience with graphic design and visual communication; and

• Patience and a sense of humor.

Qualifications

1. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and two years of experience in community work or community centered activities in an area related to the duties described above; or

2. High school graduation or equivalent and six years of experience in community work or community centered activities in an area related to the duties as described above; or

3. Education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above. However, all candidates must have at least one year of experience as described in "1" above.

Additional Information

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.