"New York, NY…The New Museum and the Executive Committee of IDEAS CITY announced today that the second IDEAS CITY Festival will take place in downtown Manhattan from May 1–4, 2013. IDEAS CITY was founded in 2011 by the New Museum, New York, as an unprecedented collaborative initiative that involves hundreds of arts, education, and community organizations in an ongoing, multi-platform discussion on the future of cities around the globe. Guided by the belief that arts and culture are essential to the continued health and vitality of urban centers everywhere, IDEAS CITY partners work together to exchange ideas, propose solutions, share with the public, and effect change." - New Museum

The Cooper Union, its faculty and students are included in many of the Festival's key events including public projects, workshops, and exhibitions.

Along with Columbia University and Princeton University, the School of Architecture's 4th Year Design Studio led by Professor Diane Lewis, has been invited to participate in Bowery Reimagined. This research project explores the future of the Bowery and will culminate in an exhibition at various locations at the StreetFest to be held on May 3.

The Festival will begin on Wednesday 1 May with a keynote address by Joi Ito followed by an all day conference on Thursday 2 May, both in The Great Hall of The Cooper Union. The Ideas City Conference will be comprised of leading theorists, artists, and architects and will focus on four specific areas within the theme Untapped Capital: Youth, Play, Waste, Ad Hoc Strategies. Lydia Kallipoliti, Assistant Professor Adjunct, will participate on the Waste panel discussion.

The Cooper Union Institute of Sustainable Design and Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc) will present the project Grids Off; Lights On with the support of The Cooper Union's Benjamin Menschel Faculty Fellowship.  The project is led by Lydia Kallipoliti with a group of engineering, architecture, and art students from The Cooper Union and will present an off-grid lighting installation including illuminated chambers of tonic water. The project is designed in collaboration with CUISD Fellow Martha Giannakopoulou and architecture faculty member Katerina Kourkoula. The Student Team includes Alyssa Davis, Laura Quan, Natalia Zawisny, Stephanie Borchers, Shiori Sasaki (AR '14), Simon Khuvis, WooJong Kim, Glory Day Correw, Anna Kramer.

The PEN World Voices Festival and the Architectural League of New York are partnering in the project Little Free Libraries/New York. The School of Architecture’s 3rd Year Design Studio led by Assistant Professor Michael Young was one of ten groups selected as part of a juried competition to design and install a Little Free Library at The Cooper Union. Each site will facilitate an informal exchange of books in the city’s public spaces, where local residents and visitors may use and contribute to these communal, non-market based resources.

Professor David Turnbull, Director of PITCHAfrica, will hold a workshop for PITCHAfrica's RAINCHUTE Campaign, which utilizes decommissioned parachutes as rainwater harvesters in Africa's semi-arid regions. The 2013 campaign is in collaboration with British artist Lisa Milroy.