The City College of New York (CCNY) has announced a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support a new multidisciplinary Place, Memory, and Culture Incubator (PMCI) in the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture.

With a focus on community-based partnerships and projects in Harlem that engage built-environment design and the humanities through a social justice lens, PMCI will provide a space and a methodology for members of the CCNY community—academic and neighborhood—to engage with one another in the production of more representative and authentic histories. PMCI’s potential community partners include Broadway Mall Association, Harlem African Burial Ground, and Save Harlem Now!, among others.

“This latest project recognizes the historic positioning of the Spitzer School of Architecture in the Harlem community,” said CCNY president Vincent G. Boudreau. “As well as our commitment, in the architectural field and elsewhere in the college, to acknowledging, preserving and democratizing access to the important physical and cultural legacies of this place.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Terraxplorer)