Delancey Street Associates (DSA) partnered with three community schools in School District 1 to craft the City Seekers After School program. The program helped students explore the Lower East Side neighborhood, its history, and its ongoing evolution.

As part of the program, DSA welcomed 40 elementary students to Essex Crossing over the past three months from PS/MS 34 Franklin D. Roosevelt, PS/MS 140 Nathan Straus, and PS/MS 188 The Island School. Leaders of the Essex Crossing development took students on a tour of the construction sites and discussed how buildings are built, from the early design concepts to the construction phase.

The City Seekers program, which ran for eight weeks, saw students travel from their schools with their teachers to a new portion of Essex Crossing or other community institution each week. The curriculum was developed in close coordination with the leadership of School District 1 Community Schools and was tailored to meet the needs of their students.

The program leveraged the diversity of Essex Crossing’s tenants and neighbors and in addition to site tours at Essex Crossing, programming included interactive projects with local arts organization Artists Alliance, NYU Langone, Regal Cinemas, the Tenement Museum, Trader Joe’s and Essex Crossing’s Urban Farm operator.

The program culminated with a final project, which drew on the students’ experiences including traveling throughout their neighborhood and engaging with various community stakeholders.

Delancey Street Associates is a joint venture of L+M Development Partners, Taconic Investment Partners, BFC Partners, the Prusik Group and Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group.