Design for Distancing Guidebook

April - December 2020

Project Partners:

Neighborhood Design Center

Baltimore Development Corporation

City of Baltimore

Project background and outcomes:

Developed in the summer of 2020 in response to COVID-19 and the challenges faced by local businesses, the Design for Distancing program called on Baltimore’s world class design and public health communities to develop innovative approaches to safe, physically distant gathering. The first outcome of this work was the Ideas Guidebook, a collection of ten concepts for public space interventions that could be adapted for and installed in cities all over the world. Designs for the Guidebook were solicited through a global call for entries. From hand drawn sketches by children to professional renderings, 162 concepts were submitted from Baltimore and around the country. A review panel composed of experts from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, leaders from the City of Baltimore and from the Baltimore small business and design communities voted on designs, ultimately selecting ten.

Images courtesy Neighborhood Design Center, EDSA, PI.KL, and Quinn Evans