Design Trust for Public Space has launched its 2025 Request For Projects “Water: Designing an Equitable Water Future for NYC”—an initiative to seed and develop projects that recognize the future of the city’s public life depends on shifting our relationship with water in all its various forms–rain, oceans, rivers–and the multiple ways we engage with it–infrastructure, art, play, boating, drinking, flooding.

We invite your organization to submit their ideas for a more equitable water future. The two-year initiative will develop up to five water project proposals into tangible initiatives, supported by $10,000 in funding and an incubation process guided by the Design Trust and an advisory committee of city agencies, community stakeholders, and design experts.

Visit https://www.designtrust.org/rfp/ to download our application guide and learn more about the RFP. A brief statement of interest is due November 10, 2025, with semi-finalists invited to submit full proposals in December that are due Feb 2026. Sign up for one of our informational webinars on the application process! Register for Oct. 9th at 12pm here, and Oct. 14th at 6pm here. Please email programs@designtrust.org with any application questions or accessibility accommodation needs.

We have created a toolkit for easy sharing with your networks and colleagues. It’s a one-stop shop for everything you need to know. This resource has: 1) the RFP link and application; 2) links to informational webinars; 3) the press release; 4) shareable graphics; and 5) and sample social media text. Please use as you see fit!