Project for Public Spaces

Job Openings

About Project for Public Spaces, Inc.:

Project for Public Spaces is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people turn their public spaces into vital community places, with programs, uses, and people-friendly settings that build local value and serve community needs. Founded in 1975, PPS embraces the insights of William (Holly) Whyte, a pioneer in understanding the way people use public spaces. PPS is an internationally recognized center for best-practices, information, and resources about Placemaking.

PPS is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Women and persons of color are strongly encouraged to apply.


Jobs

Associate Executive Assistant

Job Summary:

The Executive Assistant is an organizer, planner, and problem solver and is the first point of contact for people visiting the PPS office or contacting us by phone and email. The Executive Assistant reports to the Senior Staff, manages aspects of PPS’s office operations and provides overall administrative support to the PPS Senior Staff.

The Executive Assistant must be able to self-manage and coordinate the schedules of senior staff who travel frequently; must be capable of prioritizing, multi-tasking, and managing multiple projects; must communicate effectively and facilitate solutions; be team oriented, able to maintain the flexibility to adapt when goals change. The EA possesses passion for and wants to learn more about cities and public spaces, have a sense of humor, and effectively functioning as a strong foundation and support for an often high-spirited creative-thinking office of 20-25 staff.

Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Support the work of the Senior Staff. Must be able to take a proactive approach in each of the following:
  • Help organize staff meetings and other meetings involving teams of PPS staff.
  • Maintain a working knowledge of the office-wide financial status and provide support for budgeting and workload projections.
  • Assist with Human Resource efforts in the office; foster the development of teams and good working relationships among office staff members and colleagues outside of the office.
  • Assist with the coordination of Information Technology efforts and the work of the Webmaster and the Network Manager.
  • Support the President and Senior Vice Presidents’ office-based administrative tasks. Must be able to take a proactive approach in each of the following:
  • Maintain an up-to-date working knowledge of the daily events and administrative needs of the President and Senior Vice Presidents.
  • Maintain the President and Senior Vice Presidents’ schedules, make their calendars available office-wide, and communicate their availability to others in the office. When asked, assist with making transportation and accommodation reservations.
  • Maintain essential communication for the President and Senior Vice Presidents as required through emails/mail/phone inquiries.
  • Maintain the weekly time sheets and monthly expense reports of the President and when asked, of the Senior Vice Presidents.
  • Ensure contracts are in place before the President engages in a project or speaking engagement; if not, shepherd that process.
  • Manage the President’s larger communications projects, distributing email letters, newsletters and bulletins as needed.
  • Manage priorities from one or more of the internal activities simultaneously:
  • Coordinate Project for Public Spaces’ Internship Programs during summer and the academic year, including marketing the positions, coordinating the hiring process, and running a stimulating and rewarding program for both the interns and PPS. Must be able to proactively continue to develop these programs.
  • Help the Marketing & Communication staff with the coordination of the Membership Program to ensure membership communication is done in an effective and timely manner.
  • As the front line of communication for the office, this person is responsible for answering phones, managing the general email box and maintain relationship with the phone company. Manage all changes and support to the system.
  • Help organize mailings and materials to be sent in response to general inquiries as well as requests from donors and foundations.
  • Coordinate meeting planning: work with project managers in charge to make calls, send out invitations, order food, set up refreshments, furniture and audio-visual equipment, etc.
  • Organize staff meetings for various working teams, e.g, Lines of Business Directors, full staff meetings, temporary task forces, meetings with vendors, prospective clients, members of the Board, general visitors, etc.
  • Keep contact database up to date (e.g. enter new information on a regular basis.
  • Assist with facility management: ensure office appearance is neat; manage special cleaning or maintenance projects (e.g. carpet cleaning, painting, etc.)

Required Skills and Abilities:

  • A strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite. Ability to work with relational databases such as Salesforce and FilemakerPro. Additionally, a working knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite CS3 (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator) is favored.
  • Strong communication skills in both verbal forms (i.e. day-to-day discussions, project team meetings, presentations, etc.) and written forms (weekly program and project status reports, day-to-day letters and e-mail correspondence, meeting notes, program / project summaries, etc.) Communications must be clear and concise overall with internal staff, clients and colleagues.
  • Strong decision making, problem solving, and resource allocation skills/experience.
  • Demonstrated attention to detail skills through prior experience at the tactical, implementation level.
  • Ability to set tactical goals and directly implement the steps to reach the goals.
  • Ability to influence the managing leadership in regard to day-to-day activity.

Education and/or Experience:

A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent, preferably in a preferably be in urban planning or public policy, or design-related (architecture, urban design, etc.), or at least two (2) years of office experience with progressive leadership responsibilities.

Please email resume, cover letter, and writing sample to Dana Kitzes (dkitzes@pps.org). No phone calls please. Part time or full time available.



Internships

Urban Design Intern

Project for Public Spaces seeks an urban design intern to assist with projects that define the public realm of waterfronts, major urban centers, parks, and other defining spaces. Intern should be comfortable using CAD, Illustrator, and InDesign. Looking for an organized person who can assist a planning, program and design team in all aspects. Intern should be able to work a minimum of 20 hours per week at the PPS office.

Please submit a resume and cover letter, including your available days and times, to Dana Kitzes at dkitzes@pps.org with Urban Design Intern in the subject line.