Rayshad Dorsey, Joseph James, Diego Zubizarreta Otero, Julian Owens, and Michael Urueta of Partners of Place
Partners of Place | Patchwork: A Black + Rural Homecoming, 2023. Image credit: Partners of Place
Established in 1981, the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers is a juried portfolio competition for early-career practitioners in North America, organized around a yearly theme.
Partners of Place (PoP) won a 2024 award.
Partners of Place was established in 2023 by its five core members: Rayshad Dorsey, Joseph James, Diego Zubizarreta Otero, Julian Owens, and Michael Urueta. The research, ideation, and design collective focuses on issues of social and environmental equity. Partners of Place’s speculative designs imagine a more inclusive future. Throughout their projects, the collective proposes interventions into the built environment contextualized by the social sciences, using techniques of data visualization, historical mapping, and storytelling.
Recent projects include:
- Patchwork: A Black + Rural Homecoming, an exhibit of opportunities for reinvestment and reunion in the rural American South
- The United Amends Project, a digital platform and network that uses both narrative and analytics to advocate for the social and economic well-being of Black Americans
- SXCO: The Sex Workers’ Co-Op, a conceptual study that envisions a communal space for sex workers in Washington DC
Joseph James holds a bachelor of arts from Clemson University and a MArch from The University of Texas at Austin.
Diego Zubizarreta Otero holds a bachelor of science in architecture from Roger Williams University and a MArch from The University of Texas at Austin.
Julian Owens holds a bachelor of arts and MArch from Clemson University. He is an adjunct professor at Howard University.
Rayshad Dorsey holds a bachelor of arts from Clemson and a MArch from Harvard University GSD. He is a lecturer at Clemson University.
Michael Urueta holds a bachelor of arts and MArch from Clemson University.
