12/23/2016

Utile Case Study: Designing for the Public Sector

Proactive Practices has published a series of case studies as part of a three-year research project exploring how firms and nonprofits have built financially sustainable public interest design practices. The studies, produced by the Proactive Practices Research Collaborative and funded by the National Endowment of the Arts and PennDesign, describe in detail the business models, strategies, and “secret sauce” of ten selected firms to showcase what it takes to run a public interest design practice.

Utile: Designing for the Public Sector (Case Study No. 1) highlights Utile’s think tank approach and initial hyper-local focus to become a trusted expert for Boston public-sector clients, eventually expanding our focus to larger-scale and more complex public-realm projects. The study goes into detail about the founding philosophies of the firm, urban design proposals and projects that paved the way for future work, and specific projects that the firm has completed for the public sector.