“The Making of Corona Plaza, Queens” documents the process of making a unique public plaza in the predominantly immigrant neighborhood of Corona, Queens through the voices of some of the main protagonists, be it community members and organizers, activists, street vendors, artists and designers, NYC officials, as well as the Queens Museum leadership. By focusing on the personal stories of those involved, the film highlights not just the physical transformation of urban space, but also the socio-economic, cultural and political impact on the neighborhood. The community-driven transformation and the involvement of residents in the design and stewardship of the plaza stand out as a model for how public spaces can be reimagined to better serve emerging publics, but also as a caution of the challenges immigrant communities face in making their voices heard, and in configuring their plazas as vital communal hubs.

Miodrag Mitrašinović is an architect, urbanist, author, and Professor of Urbanism and Architecture at Parsons School of Design, The New School University in New York City.
His scholarly work focuses on two parallel and complementary lines of inquiry. First, on the role design plays as an agent of social and political change, and as catalyst for critical urban transformations; his research argues for the centrality of designing in the conceptualization, production, and representation of democratic and participatory urban space. Secondly, Miodrag’s work also focuses on the generative capacity and infrastructural dimensions of public space specifically at the intersections of public policy, urban and public design, and processes of privatization of public resources.

His recent publications include: editor of Architecture and the Public World: Kenneth Frampton (Bloomsbury, 2022), co-editor of Public Space Reader (with Vikas Mehta, Routledge, 2021) and Emerging Public Realm of the Greater Bay Area: Approaches to Public Space in a Chinese Megaregion (with Timothy Jachna, Routledge, 2021).

Mitrašinović holds Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Florida at Gainesville (1998), U.S.A.; MArch from The Berlage Institute, the Netherlands (1994); and Dipl. Ing. Arch. Diploma from the University of Belgrade, Serbia (1992). Before joining The New School in 2005, he held teaching and research appointments at the University of Texas at Austin (1998-2005, with tenure), at the University of Florida at Gainesville (1995-96 and 1997-98), and at Kyoto University in Japan (1996-97). In 2012, he completed the academic leadership program at Harvard University, the Institute for Management and Leadership in Education (MLE).