DownCity Design

DownCity Design is honored to be named a 2026 Cox Charities Community Grant recipient!

Thanks to the generosity of employees, we'll be able to expand our free design education programs for Providence teens! We're grateful to have been recognized at Cox Charities Day at the Rhode Island State House yesterday, and even more grateful for what this support makes possible: young people building a more equitable Providence, one project at a time.

Check out these highlights of our DownCity Designers' final build day 🐛 We hope you can join us for the unveiling of this incredible youth-designed, youth-built seating installation for Classical High School's Gardening Club later today!

📍 Classical High School
🕓 TODAY, 4–5PM

Come celebrate our students, their creativity, and the community their project will help build!
.ri

Please join DownCity Design for the unveiling of our latest youth-designed, youth-built project, created by our talented DownCity Designers for Classical High School's Gardening Club 🐛

When: Monday, June 1 | 4-5PM
Where: 770 Westminster St.

Celebrate with us as we cut the ribbon and hear from the student designers about the process of designing and building their Hungry Caterpillar-inspired seating area! Visit https://buff.ly/4aXQJ3c for more details and to let us know if you'll be joining us 🔗

.ri

Every great build deserves a great finish! Last week, our Designers spent time carefully sanding each stool in preparation for their final installation at Classical High School. Stay tuned for the big reveal this spring 🌱

.ri

Take a look at some highlights from our Designers' first assembly session 🪵

Our students split into two teams: one focused on glue application, while the other used their custom-built jigs to hold each stool securely in place during assembly. After a few dry runs to nail down the process, they worked together to build each stool as efficiently as possible.

Stay tuned as the project comes together this spring 🌱

.ri

One of the biggest inspirations behind our DownCity Designers' service project was The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and it introduced a seriously cool construction challenge to our workshop 🐛 Each round stool was carefully designed to be held together using only tension and wood glue, requiring no other fasteners! Swipe to see highlights of our students prepping their lumber and jigs for assembly, plus past iterations and schematics that shaped their final design 🪚

.ri

Our Discover: Digital Fab students recently got a visit from , a RISD/Brown student-led club dedicated to space design & fabrication 🚀

William and Alayka joined us last week to share material samples, prototypes, and their passion for design beyond the classroom. They even led our students through a hands-on CAD workshop with one-on-one feedback, giving our young designers a real taste of what's possible when you push fabrication to the next level ✨

Our Discover: Digital Fab students recently took their learning beyond the studio with a field trip to the PPL MakerSpace! 🏛️✨ They got an inside look at this incredible free community resource, exploring the many fabrication tools, prototypes, and samples the workshop has to offer.

A huge thank you to Brenda and her team for the warm welcome! This is exactly the kind of space our young designers can continue growing in long after our program ends. 🙌

Our DownCity Designers have officially begun construction on the outdoor seating they designed for Classical High School's Gardening Club! Our workshop was full of buzzing energy and sawdust as our students carefully measured, cut, and labeled every piece need for their service project 🪚

Stay tuned to see how the project comes together later this spring!

.ri

Here's what our Discover: Digital Fab students have been up to recently! They have continued to build on their modeling, iteration, and design-thinking skills through a series of creative prompts, such as designing a handy solution for eating ice cream on the go 🍦🚲

Take a look at some highlights above!