Last Lingerings | Providence City Hall | Sophie Weston Chien, BArch ‘20

For my last blog post, I have spent the past month (mainly being an orientation leader and recovering from that) parsing together my Maharam experience. I find myself highlighting so many of the amazing opportunities I had-from running a design thinking workshop with four departments represented or the passionate people that I met that I am real friends with (I still owe you a coffee date Z) or the struggles I had being positive and professional while answering constituent’s phone calls.

I think the most fun I have when catching up with people is when they ask me what I did. Like actually did? I spent my summer wrestling with that question, and while I was busy with things to do, I wasn’t quite sure how to answer that for myself.

last day in the office!

Now, I’ve finally realized what I did was to simply be there. The ambition of a Maharam Fellowship is not to produce an immediate solution to a social issue, but to provide opportunities for artists and designers to be at the table when those issues are discussed. It’s a subtle but powerful consideration when people say “Oh I thought about you when I was formatting this power point” or ask your opinion of the art being hung on the wall. It speaks to a larger consciousness of our visual world- not only in the context of ‘elitist’ design (different conversation) but breaking that down to understand that the best design is best when it’s for real people.

maps is (as) equity

Representation is a buzzword right now, a simple answer to an enormously complex issue of power and identity in society. But I also think it doesn’t get enough respect as a solution. We discussed representation during my last day at City Hall, at an Equity Peer Learning Luncheon, which came out of the Racial and Environmental Justice Committee work initiated by the Sustainability Office. I was asked to present my design thinking workshop and suggest a possible mitigation strategy through wayfinding in City Hall. It was a beautiful moment, that I was able to use both fundamentals of municipalities and design to present an informed strategy to my peers in government. I was so proud to represent as a designer, and recognize it was another intern- a RISD graduate interfering with the Sustainability Office that invited me to share my perspective.

wayfinding is(as) equity

Just as important, I also recognize other forms of representation that are also vital in creating effective, productive and inclusive institutions. It is still remarkable to me the amount of ethnic, racial and gender (just to name the most obvious) diversity that has been added/encouraged to the city during the current administration. These representatives don’t just matter in pictures, but represents a paradigm shift in power structures where government begins to be representative of the communities it governs.

That being said, I am so grateful for the support and opportunities the Maharam Fellowship gave me, my new (and old) colleagues at City Hall and hope to continue this work. I’m happy to be back in the creative energy of RISD, and become a representative for possibilities that exist outside of our typical art and design cannon.

Thank you for following me, and if you want more I invite you to visit my website.

swc

Plain Language | Providence City Hall | Sophie Weston Chien, BArch ‘20

I have spent the last few weeks preparing a design thinking workshop for my office (Mayor’s Center for City Services), Office of Innovation, Senior Services, and Healthy Communities Office. My goals are to a. learn how to facilitate a design thinking workshop b. begin to unpack my design process and explore how to share it with others c. wrap up my Maharam Fellowship with my colleagues finally explaining what I do and d. share design thinking with people who work in city hall to infiltrate municipal thinking with the people who execute it. No tall order!

It is reminiscent of another workshop I lead this year during Alternative Spring Break. I also proposed working with a government organization (National Park Service, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area) and had them agree to host a group of RISD students (all majors and years) for a 3-day workshop/volunteering opportunity. They presented us with a problem, and I spent the next few days leading my team through the design process to come up with a solution (here and here for spoilers). It’s so interesting to me that so many people see designing as this impenetrable action, versus the parts needed to analyze, synthesize, visualize and create that we are taught in traditional school.

After facilitating both of these experiences I have learned a ton about my own design process, but even more importantly I have learned about how the design process uncovers one’s values. At its core, working for the government, working in public service (service is a word I like to problematize but I’ll keep it for now) is about improving people’s lives, and in the least-cheesy way making the world better for people. Of course, over time this has mutated from many other types of societies and one should argue that currently big government is not doing this but at this level, in the place, people CARE. It was abundantly clear throughout the design process that the chief concern for everyone was if constituents of Providence would be better served.

There were no mentions of breakthrough ideas (which for the record I would normally go for) that would revolutionize everything, no extreme statements for the sake of statements. Just extremely careful considerations of doing the most good for the most people using the precious resources the city has.

It was so beautiful that each office truly acted as an advocate for the people they represent. The department head of Senior Services told her cohorts when anything proposed would be hard for seniors to navigate. The department head of Mayor’s Center for City Services was determined that city hall would become actually approachable and visitors would have access to the services they need in the way that they need it. Everyone was united in their vision for plain language to be used at every opportunity- breaking down the bureaucratic system one step at a time.

Good design is considered design, and that’s why we need more government workers and designers at the same table. 

talk, act, make | Providence City Hall | Sophie Weston Chien, BArch ‘20

Constituent outreach at Sankofa Farms Market on Elmwood with my co-worker Zainab!

talk, act, make is a super simple way to explain my process of understanding and destabilizing conditions for change (which is what I invariably want to do with everything). For complete disclosure, I stole this off a precollege kid’s t-shirt yesterday so jokes on you.

For my Maharam so far, I focused on the talking. Talking during meetings with Department of Planning and Development, talking to constituents when answering the phones (and trying not to drop the call when transferring them), talking to my coworkers to understand where they come from and what lovely people they are, and talking to people outside of the process (mainly my roommates as we make family dinners) to make sense of what I do every day.

At this point, talking has lead me to a ton of interesting places. One of the most unexpected topics is considering the impact of unionized workers in the context of innovation. How do you reframe unions and job positions to create the best conditions for people? Honestly, I don’t expect to tackle that problem, but it would be a cool project! Talking has also lead me to reach out to some of RISD’s past Maharam Fellows for insight into how they utilized design thinking within their organizations.

Reading sent to me by Leah Erica Chung (former Maharam Fellow)

At this point in my Maharam, I am approaching a pivot, where I transition from talking to action! I’m very excited to actually start doing things and not just absorbing. I have a couple of small projects I’m doing for MCCS, but I have two big ones in the works. My first project is creating and facilitating a Design Thinking Workshop with my team. My goals are to explain what I do as a ~designer~, show them a bit of how to think through things from a design perspective, expose them to jargon-less communication, and get their ideas on how to make MCCS a better system.

My second project beings to address another goal of my Maharam. I was drawn to 311 because fundamentally it is a medium for people to communicate with their government. In that vein, I am researching how the ‘conversations’ (reporting cases) can be expanded to be included in the Department of Planning and Development’s process. This is a department removed from day to day services, responding to longer-term problems, and so they haven’t had conversations about 311 yet.

Project by 3×3 Design Firm, encouraging consistent engagement through data-driven outreach

As I look towards the end of the summer I am excited for the final stages of my Maharam, and for the possibility of integrating actual making. At this point, it might take the form of programmatic or structural design, but we will see!

25 Dorrance St | Providence City Hall | Sophie Weston Chien, BArch ‘20

Last week I started my Maharam Fellowship, working in Providence City Hall in the Mayor’s Center for City Services (MCCS). My project is focused on how the 311 system can be made more approachable and effective on multiple scales.

This is an initial mapping I did to understand the current system of constituents, city services, and MCCS.

For those who don’t know, 311 is the typical (at least typical of American municipalities) phone line for contacting city government. It’s the non-emergency line for calling when the sidewalks are cracked or there is graffiti on a school wall. As a symbol, it is typically understood as inefficient, unreliable and cumbersome.

311 is available via website, app, in person or online.

Jorge Elorza, Providence’s current mayor, rebooted Providence’s 311 system in March 2016 after some starts and sputters. Using new software and a new team, over the course of 15 months 311 has seen over 17,000 cases registered and completed. Part of that new team is the Director, Andy Jacques, who was actually the Assistant Director for Leadership Programs at RISD (my boss there too) and my strongest ally.

This is a cheeseball picture of City Hall, which if you didn’t know is adjacent to Kennedy Plaza.

311 functions extremely well as a one to one recorder of one constituent addressing one problem (such as a pothole or sidewalk), but I’m interested in using the recognizable and effective 311 infrastructure and applying it to larger city services.

As I settle into City Hall, my first impression is the high-spirited and infectious energy of the place. One of my first days I went on a tour and everyone was so genuine and excited for me to join the team, in a way that I was not expecting of municipal government. The current administration is super young and eager to leave behind the past (see Crimetown) and embrace the opportunities the city of Providence has; as a liberal powerhouse with a large immigrant population, great universities and old, but historic infrastructure. In fact, City Hall is home to the third largest self-supporting stairs in the world (said a Public Property employee to me once)

Photo for reference by Liane Brandon (pretty impressive)

My task the first two weeks is finding my way into the project by absorbing the various facets of the MCCS office and connecting with outside offices such as Innovation, Planning and Development and Public Works. I am trying to strike a balance of understanding the systems but not accepting them because my strength in this position is as an outsider.

City cases as a network of infrastructure projects? Stay tuned…

In my next few weeks, I hope to develop more relationships with municipal offices and focus on constituent outreach, learning about their perceptions of the 311 service and how it can be improved and expanded.

Being in government, I am learning a little politicin‘ and have been able to meet with various directors and leaders around the city and state. Today I actually got to have lunch with the Secretary of State, Nellie Gorbea, who is the first Hispanic person to be elected to statewide office in New England.