HECTOR practices urban design, planning, and civic arts. Informed by traditions of visionary architecture, popular education, and community organizing, we work on landscapes, buildings, development plans, and regulations with complex constituencies and competing priorities. 

The MacArthur Foundation describes HECTOR’s designs as “vivid and witty strategies to help residents exercise power within the public and private processes that shape our cities.

Led by partners Jae Shin and Damon Rich based on their experiences working as designers within municipal bureaucracies, HECTOR’s recent projects include a South Philly neighborhood park, a youth-centric development plan for a district of 37,000 people on Detroit’s west side, and a memorial for ecofeminist Sister Carol Johnston.

 

Partners

Damon Rich PP AICP is a designer, urban planner, and partner at HECTOR. He previously served as planning director and chief urban designer for the City of Newark and is the founder of the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), an internationally recognized nonprofit organization that uses art and design to increase meaningful civic engagement. His work has been recognized by the MacArthur Fellowship, American Planning Association National Planning Award, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, the Loeb Fellowship in Advanced Environmental Studies at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, the MacDowell Colony, and the United States Pavilion at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice.

Jae Shin is a designer and partner at HECTOR. She recently led the consultant team for Cody Rouge & Warrendale Neighborhood Framework Youth-Centric Neighborhood Plan for the City of Detroit. She previously served as an Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellow at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), where she facilitated efforts to define and implement design principles for preserving and rehabilitating New York City’s public housing. She holds degrees in painting from Rhode Island School of Design and architecture from Princeton University. Her projects have received support from the MacDowell Colony and the National Endowment for the Arts, and she has taught design studios at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Yale School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design.

 

Clients

The Globeville, Elyria-Swansea Coalition Organizing for Health and Housing Justice, Invest Detroit Foundation for the City of Detroit, Ironbound Community Corporation, Lower Broadway Coalition for I-280 & Route 21, Mayor's Institute on City Design, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, The Museum of Modern Art, Newark Preservation and Landmarks Committee, New Jersey Future, New York City Housing Authority & AECOM, Philadelphia Mural Arts, SEAMAAC, Inc, NJCRI Project Wow!, Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice & Doing Development Differently in Metro Detroit, Sustainable Cities Design Academy, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Yendor Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts