Pedro Cruz Cruz
De Manera Isleña Initiator
Designer, Community Planner & Visual Artist
Pedro is an architectural designer, visual artist and educator working at the intersection of advocacy, public space, and neighborhood development projects shaped by community advocacy and civic responsibility. His work aims to redirect public and private investment toward communities historically excluded from decision-making. His experience spans coordination with public agencies, designers, and community partners to advance equitable outcomes while navigating the realities of procurement, long-term stewardship, institutional processes, public-sector constraints, and multi-agency coordination.
Below you can find some of Pedro’s featured work in collaboration with colleagues, or/and under the leadership of mentors and people who continue to inspire his practice and his work at De Manera Isleña.
These include:
Dark Matter U Collective (DMU)
Jerome Haferd Studio
Bagchee Architects
FUNdaMENTAL Design Build
01 Design Activism, A Planning Tool for Community Advocacy
Keep Safe Puerto Rico. A Self-guided manual for resilient design. With Enterprise Community Partners
Project: Water Table
Company: Jerome Haferd Studio
Role: Designer
Location: East Harlem, NYC
Project: Aleia
Company: Jerome Haferd Studio
Role: Designer / Install
Location: Central Harlem, NYC
Course: Archipelagic Estates of Puerto Rico - Island Cultures in light of Climate Change
Type: Year-long Grad Studio
Co-taught with: Nandini Bagchee & Paul Ruppert
Course: Unit 25 Re-Imagining New Paradigms of Manufacture in East New York, Brooklyn
Type: Year-long Grad Studio
Co-taught with: Nandini Bagchee
Course: Exchange As Spatial Practice - Designing with Stories of Radical Mobility in East Harlem
Type: Advance Summer Studio
Program: DMU x Freedom Ride: 2024 Summer Institute
Role: Visual Artist & Co-Coordinator
Program: Place, Memory and Culture Incubator for Harlem
Role: Communications & Engagement Associate
Title: Architectures of Joy, Collectivity, and Abundance
Role: Co-Editor, Co-Designer & Co-Contributor
Publisher: Architecture Magazine
Title: Context, A Subversive Act of Communing
Role: Co-Designer & Co-Contributor
Publisher: Architecture Magazine
Title: Poly Particles: Dark Matter U In Conversation
Role: Co-Editor, Co-Designer & Co-Contributor
Publisher: Architecture Magazine
Title: Market Share
Role: Co-Editor, Co-Designer & Contributor
Publisher: Urban Omnibus
Design Justice & Policy Change through Stories of Phantom Flooding in The Rockaways
Planning with Sovereignty and Mutual Aid: A Right to Public Space in Corona, Queens
Reclaiming Roots: Factory Town of Aguirre Puerto Rico
Re-Storying Las Mareas: Building a Case for Reparations and Sustainable Renewal
02 Built Projects
Project: Teatro Estación Cultural
Company: FUNdamental
Role: Designer / Install
Location: Tapachula, México
Project: Sankofa
Company: Jerome Haferd Studio
Role: Designer / Install
Location: Central Harlem, NYC
03 Academia & Research
04 Publications & Visual Storytelling
Title: Incorporating Informality, Experiments in Urban Reconfiguration
Role: Visual Artist & Co-Contributor
Publisher: nai010
Title: (Dark) Notes on the Caribbean
Role: Co-Editor, Co-Designer & Co-Contributor
Publisher: Architecture Magazine
