New York's first-ever Urban Design Week, created by the Institute for Urban Design to engage New Yorkers in issues of the public realm, aims to highlight the collective effort involved in making a city. The public festival has been celebrated with discussions, tours, screenings, workshops and events across the five boroughs.

As part of this effort, the Institute for Urban Design also created By the City/For the City, an open-call ideas competition. After collecting over 500 ideas from New York residents for improving the city's public spaces, systems and social fabric, the Institute for Urban Design invites architects, designers, artists and urbanists to take the challenge and respond with proposals.

From a call to fix dangerous intersections in Brooklyn, to a borough-wide demand for a more enjoyable public realm in the Bronx, and all the way up to suggestions for implementing a comprehensive system of rooftop gardens, the ideas collected from the public cover a wide range of issues across every scale and corner of the city, from the pragmatic to the fanciful.

Proposals, which can respond to one idea or combine several across a neighborhood, borough or the entire city, will be reviewed by a jury consisting of Kate Ascher, Barry Bergdoll, Ned Cramer, Toni L. Griffin, Thom Mayne, Janette Sadik-Khan, Denise Scott Brown, and Claire Weisz. Looking specifically for projects and ideas that increase the dynamism and utility of public spaces, and above all else ensure equal access to such spaces for citizens in every borough, the jury will select ten winning contributions.

Together, all of these ideas—from New Yorkers and designers—will be gathered in the Atlas of Possibility for the Future of New York, an exhibition and book that will be launched during Urban Design Week in September. For more information, visit www.urbandesignweek.org.

Photograph by Alex Fradkin.