?We often say that we design everywhere for everyone,? says Lissa So, founding partner of the multidisciplinary design practice Marvel. Far from architects interested primarily in building vacation compounds for the global jetset, Marvel takes its motto seriously. ?We have architects, landscape architects, planners, urban designers, and graphic designers, and we do all types of projects, from parks to theaters to schools to large-scale mixed use to affordable housing.? While they?re based in New York City, Marvel also has offices in Puerto Rico and Virginia.
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In this week?s Milkshake, So shares her favorite recent project: a new YMCA in the Northeast Bronx.  ?It’s a project that this community has been fighting for for the past 30 years,? she says. ?They said that they just didn’t have a community center for their kids to go after school, and they needed a home base. It was just an incredible project.? She also discusses Marvel?s work for St John’s Bread in Life, a soup kitchen and food pantry in Brooklyn?s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. ?It just gave me a tremendous amount of joy to see people use the facility and the impact that it was having on their lives,? So tells us. ?Great design and great projects don’t necessarily have to be this ?high? design. It can really be more about how you’re impacting people’s lives.? Also in this M...