The spatial and interior environments of the new ECC Civil Rights Center and Theater will inhabit the existing building and landscape to inform social movement, and scaffold culture. Through a robust series of community workshops, we co-created a diverse program including permanent and rotating exhibition spaces, immersive galleries, community rooms, cafe, flexible classrooms, art gardens, curatorial labs, and a Living Archive. In honor of the ancestors, the various ceilings unite and evolve as a 3 dimensional “Sankofa Sky”, where ancestral offerings take shape as connective tissues of triumph and liberation.

The Living Archive is an evolving collection of community memory and future made alive through a physical and digital presence that integrates history in the now as a tool to inform, unite, and inspire the future. The Living Archive was born from extensive workshops and interviews involving a diverse cross-section of hundreds of folks from the San Diego community. In support of the growth and evolution of the ECC legacy, the Living Archive will inhabit space and a diverse collection of platforms, bringing history and future to life.

In response to BIPOC underrepresentation in the tech field, this middle school digital learning center cultivates environments of connection where technology and nature thrive to cultivate agency, possibility, and optimism. As a place for ESPORTs, robotics, performance, digital arts, production labs, community spaces, and courtyard classrooms, the center evolves from the surrounding orchard as a 3-dimensional grid – creating a diverse set of suggested spaces that act as an armature for infinite opportunity and possibility, fostering student collaboration as a generator of social and environmental change.

As a strategic partner, JUST propelled HGA’s commitment to cultivate equity in their projects, partnerships, design processes, and internal initiatives. JUST focused on the development of client specific engagement resources and strategies, identifying and developing mentorship and training opportunities, and surfacing and exploring opportunities to integrate HGA’s Equity Pillars within the practice. In support of HGA’s belief to “design with people, not for people, JUST continues to help and advance the equity needle forward in design and practice.

As a family legacy project, JUST master planned 2 acres, and renovated, restored, and incorporated a fully integrated sustainable retrofit to a 200 year old stone farmhouse, cottage, studio, and pool house. From its conception the project aimed to be a marker for a sustainable future – the project incorporates an on site PV array and battery bank to achieve net positive energy, passive heating and cooling strategies, and 20,000 liters of onsite water reclamation storage for reuse and irrigation. (co-creator : Industrial Craft)

In collaboration with the Modern Elder Academy (MEA) and 500 of their followers, we built the 7 Point Center, a regenerative land art piece that strengthens the earth, slows the movement of water, reduces erosion, & supports regeneration. Participants hand selected stones, and planted “native seed stars” which will take root, further stabilizing the land, and enhancing ecology. A pattern of concentric circles orients each of us to the four directions, mother earth, father sky, and sacred self, connecting our health with the well-being and future of the land.