Independent Projects is a competitive grant program that is open to New Yorkers who work in any of the design fields. Administered by The Architectural League and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), Independent Projects supports self-generated creative and research projects that seek to answer the question: where can design go next? The 2025 Independent Projects application period is currently open through June 4, 2025. Find out more about this grant program and how to apply on the 2025 Independent Projects webpage.

This event will feature presentations by two recent grant recipient teams, followed by a discussion and audience Q&A moderated by a member of the League’s staff.

Spotlight Projects

Multispecies Totem: Exploring habitats and renewable energy
Eva Perez de Vega and Ian Gordon
New York, NY
2023-2024 Independent Projects recipients

Architects Eva Perez de Vega and Ian Gordon have installed the Multispecies Totem on Governors Island’s urban farm hosted by Earth Matter, an environmental organization dedicated to composting. The sculptural structure integrates habitats for birds, plants, and insects, while also providing water collection for human use. The structure is composed of a series of modules made from compostable, robotically 3D-printed biomaterials stacked along a water-collecting funnel that culminates in a hemplime base footing. Over time, the project will become part of the landscape: as plants grow from within the totem, the structure will slowly decompose and return to the composting cycle.

Roots and Rhythms: Cultivating Food Sovereignty, Cultural Resilience, and Economic Empowerment in Buffalo’s Michigan Street Corridor
Darius Somers, Latoya Kamdang, and Teonna Cooksey
Buffalo and New York, NY
2023-2024 Independent Projects recipients

Roots and Rhythms envisions the transformation of vacant lots within Buffalo’s Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor (MSAAHC) into a renewed and thriving urban center. The team of architects and designers examined the intertwined historical networks and forces that have converged within the corridor (such as the Underground Railroad, Great Migration, redlining, and the Black Lives Matter movement), synthesizing historical research and site analysis to propose interventions for storytelling and placemaking. Informed by this investigation into the MSAAHC’s history and inspired by reparations and cultural resilience, the initiative merges agriculture, spirituality, and the area’s rich musical heritage to create a space for healing, entrepreneurship, and generational wealth-building.

About the presenters

Teonna Cooksey is an urban designer, strategist, and founder of Regal.ia, a platform aligning financial feasibility with community priorities in development. She holds dual master’s degrees in Architecture and Urban Planning from Columbia University GSAPP and serves as treasurer of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). Her work seeks to invite reflection on how development, place-making, and collective memory intersect—offering pathways toward more just, inclusive, and vibrant urban landscapes.

Latoya Nelson Kamdang is the director of operations at Ennead Architects and a U.S. Fulbright Senior Scholar, combining architecture, design strategy, and sustainability in civic and cultural projects. Kamdang teaches at Pratt School of Architecture, and her research focuses on participatory design, displacement, and indigenous architecture. With degrees from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, Wharton School of Business, George Washington University, and Georgetown University, she serves on the boards of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation and the Van Alen Institute.

Eva Perez de Vega is an architect, designer, and educator. Co-founder of e+i studio with Ian Gordon, Perez de Vega holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in architecture from the University of Madrid, School of Architecture (ETSAM) and a PhD in Philosophy from the New School For Social Research with a certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies. She is an assistant professor of interior design at Parsons and teaches at Pratt School of Architecture. Through academia and practice, Perez de Vega advocates for rethinking human exceptionalism by engaging in architecture as a multispecies practice.

Darius Somers is a registered architect who bridges practice and pedagogy. As project manager at architecture firm Moody Nolan, he contributes to major cultural projects, including work at Lincoln Center and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Somers co-leads The Black Alumni of Pratt and launched his own practice, Somersworks. He holds degrees from Pratt Institute and Columbia University GSAPP.

Support

The Independent Projects grant program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.