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Small Center is the community design center of the Tulane School of Architecture. We use our architecture skills to work with community-based organizations to provide design services for constituencies who are underserved by the architecture and design professions, often in the form of design drawings, graphic booklets, and small scale design/build construction. Staff, students, and faculty collaborate with the leadership and constituents of partnering nonprofit organizations throughout New Orleans.
We are always interested in hearing how we might help community-based groups in New Orleans. Please submit a brief description of your idea here.
Our primary project intake is our annual Request for Proposals (RFP) that opens every March. To find out more information about the RFP, application requirements, and past RFP processes, please click here.
The 2019 RFP application period opens in March 2019 and closes in late May 2019. Selected projects will be announced in August 2019. The 2020 RFP will open in early March 2020.
If you are a New Orleans-based nonprofit (or operate under the fiscal sponsorship of a nonprofit organization), and you have a specific project for which you need design and planning services, then you qualify for this program.
Our work is focused on projects that impact residents of New Orleans.
Our 2018 RFP cycle has now closed. The 2019 RFP will open in March 2019. For more information about the RFP Process, please click here.
We are not an architecture or a construction firm. We cannot provide stamped drawings and we cannot work on individual household projects. If you are part of a community-based group, you may submit your project idea here. There are also many excellent firms in town.
We do not offer volunteer opportunities but many of our partner organizations do. Please contact them directly to learn more.
All of our courses, including design/build studios, can be found on the Tulane School of Architecture course listing here.
Our partnerships are typically structured around a specific project. Please submit some information about your work here and we’ll keep you in mind for future collaborations.
We offer administrative internship opportunities for Tulane University undergraduate and graduate students of all majors. Each summer, we also offer a Public Interest Design Fellowship for undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the Tulane School of Architecture. For more information about student opportunities, please click here. Look out for announcements throughout the year to apply.
It is a response to a stated need from our partner organizations, allies and the general public. We recognize that this is a skill we can offer to support partners working to influence public policy, and together, we can be effective in making positive change at a larger scale in our city and region. We have colleagues across the country who conduct amazing graphic advocacy work within the Public Interest Design field and we’re excited to learn from them as we expand this aspect of our work.
We love hosting organizations doing work aligned with our mission. To learn more about our spaces and rates we charge for use, please contact our Operations Coordinator, Donn Peabody, here.
