STAFF
Anne Frederick, Executive Director

As the founding director of Hester Street Collaborative (HSC), Anne Frederick has worked to develop a community design-build practice that responds to the needs of HSC’s local neighborhood of the Lower East Side/Chinatown as well as the needs of under-resourced NYC communities city-wide. Her unique approach to community design integrates education and youth development programming with participatory art, architecture, and planning strategies. This approach is rooted in partnership and collaboration with various community based organizations, schools, and local residents. Prior to founding HSC, Anne worked as an architect at Leroy Street Studio Architecture and as a design educator at Parsons School of Design and the New York Foundation for Architecture. Anne graduated from Parsons School of Design and The New School for Social Research in 1998, and has represented the work of HSC at various conferences, lectures, and exhibitions. To date, she has coordinated design education programs in over a dozen schools citywide, has overseen community design initiatives in a variety of parks and open spaces on the Lower East Side, and has initiated partnerships with a range of local and city-level organizations to improve the built environment in underserved New York neighborhoods.

Dylan House, Program Manager

Dylan House has been with HSC since 2006. As HSC’s Program Manager, he coordinates HSC’s education programs and school partnerships, and has worked as a teaching artist in HSC’s Ground Up design education program developing curriculum and leading design/build workshops with public school students. Dylan is currently supporting the development of the People Make Parks initiative, a joint project with Partnerships for Parks that seeks to actively engage New York City community members in the design of their city parks, playgrounds, and green spaces. Dylan is a graduate of Pratt Institute with a Bachelor of Architecture, and studied architecture and urban design abroad for a year in both Paris and Rome. Prior to joining HSC, Dylan worked for various architecture firms including Lagé Architecture and Jeffrey Hutchison & Associates as a draftsman and model maker. He brings experience in graphic design, printmaking, photography, and woodworking. Dylan is also an avid cyclist and advocate for livable streets in New York City.

In 2001, LSS relocated to Hester Street in New York City’s Chinatown, across the street from the public Sun Yat Sen middle school, or M.S. 131.  Architects approached the school to initiate a program with their Art department to work with students to design and build a new garden in the school’s neglected front yards.  Over two years, they developed an architectural education program linked to M.S. 131’s core curriculum.  The program, later named Ground Up, introduced students to architectural concepts through design exercises and workshops culminating in a campus or community improvement project.