GCDN Annual Convening – Los Angeles 2025

How can community-driven urban design practices reshape our cities to be more just, inclusive, and reflective of diverse lived experiences? This panel brings together three visionary women whose work lies at the intersection of design, spatial justice, feminist urban practice, and community engagement. Through architecture, participatory design, and cultural interventions that center community voice, these facilitators and urbanists challenge power structures, reclaim marginalized histories, and co-create environments that prioritize equity and belonging.

Speakers will discuss how spatial justice and feminist perspectives can disrupt traditional urban planning, center historically marginalized voices, and embed the narratives, histories, and lived experience of underrepresented communities into the built environment. This conversation will explore how thoughtful human-centered urban design imbued with a sense of place, and community-led design can make cities not only more inclusive but also more deeply connected to the people who inhabit them—ensuring that those historically left out of decision-making processes are seen, heard, and represented in urban space.