GrowHouse Pop-Up Civic Space

Since the 1930s, the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY, has been home to one of the largest Black communities in the United States. Although still predominantly Black, in recent decades, the BIPOC population in the area has been on a decline as a result of gentrification and displacement. Since 2017, GrowHouse Design + Development Group has served this community, with a focus on working with Black youth, low- to moderate-income Black and long-time residents, and cultural leaders to reclaim and steward community assets. GrowHouse currently leads several successful initiatives and programs, including community gatherings that are hosted in public spaces or donated venues. 

In May 2025, as part of Project for Public Spaces’ Community Placemaking Grants: Civic Spaces, GrowHouse was selected as one of two nonprofits to receive $60,000 each in direct funding, as well as planning, implementation, and capacity building assistance. In partnership with CultureHouse, Project for Public Spaces will work with GrowHouse to create a civic space as a homebase for public activities. Aimed at welcoming the Bed-Stuy community in civic engagement, intergenerational learning, land stewardship, the space will be a place where community residents can organize, engage in public dialogue, and work together to address local issues and resist the erasure of the neighborhood’s cultural legacy. 

Starting in June 2025, Project for Public Spaces’ Placemaking team will work with CultureHouse and grantees to organize visioning sessions with their respective communities, before choosing a site for activation, conceptualizing an activation plan, designing, construction, and programmatic implementation take place. Pop-ups are expected to run for three months between November 2025 and May 2026. 

Click here to learn more about Project for Public Spaces’ Community Placemaking Grants: Civic Spaces.

Check back to see this space transform!