TEDxHunterCCS - Winston Dong - Design Is Activism

DESIGN IS ACTIVISM: Help Me Design the World We Want to Live In.
Winston J. Dong, Jr., HS '82, is the founding principal of Benchmark38, a planning and design firm, and the author of a forthcoming book on how public spaces work (or don't) to transform the life and culture of surrounding communities. He teaches and serves on the advisory board of the landscape architecture certificate program at UC Berkeley, where he helped develop the sustainable design curriculum. As Program Director for Reconnecting America and the Center for Transit-Oriented Development, Winston led projects in LA, Seattle and Phoenix planning around light-rail systems. His trail design in Downtown Oakland was awarded the 2009 Focused Issue Planning Award. Before embarking on his current career, Winston spent more than a dozen years leading progressive not-for-profit organizations focused on civic and community issues. This experience shaped the core beliefs that guide his planning and design work: that our built
environment forms the physical framework for our society, that society is created where diverse peoples mingle, and that a society cannot flourish without well-designed public places where people work, play and learn together.
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