To Be Done Studio

To Be Done Studio Social and Environmental Equity Through Thoughtful Design

What does rural placemaking look like when it grows directly from community knowledge, cultural tradition, and local lea...
06/15/2026

What does rural placemaking look like when it grows directly from community knowledge, cultural tradition, and local leadership?

A project supporting Black girls and women through storytelling and leadership development. A cultural center carrying forward Indigenous language, art, and knowledge systems. Community-led pathways for leadership and economic resilience. An outdoor classroom grounded in Cherokee cultural practice and land-based learning.

These projects are rooted in communities that are already doing the work, teaching youth, protecting language and cultural traditions, creating opportunities, building relationships, and shaping spaces that reflect who they are and what matters to them.

Together, they offer a powerful reminder that rural communities are not standing still. Across the country, people are creating thoughtful, place-based responses to the challenges and opportunities facing their communities, often with deep creativity, collaboration, and care.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll continue introducing the communities joining the 2026–2027 Fieldwork Fellowship. Through site visits, design support, workshops, peer learning, coaching and site visits, Fieldwork will work alongside local leaders to advance community-centered futures rooted in culture, connection, and place.

We’re honored to continue sharing their work.

Across the country, rural communities are investing in places that help people stay connected to one another.A theater e...
06/10/2026

Across the country, rural communities are investing in places that help people stay connected to one another.
A theater entering its second century. A river town reclaiming public space. A grain elevator becoming a makerspace. A community hub centered around birth, family, and cultural care.
These projects may look different, but they share a common belief: community spaces matter.
What’s inspiring about this work is that it’s already happening. These communities are already showing up for one another, building momentum, and creating places rooted in culture and connection.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be introducing the 20 communities joining the 2026–2027 Fieldwork Fellowship. Through design support, workshops, peer learning, coaching, and site visits, Fieldwork will work alongside communities shaping thoughtful, community-centered futures rooted in place.
We’re honored to begin sharing their work.

Building Common Ground is excited to introduce the inaugural Fieldwork Fellowship cohort.Across the country, rural and T...
06/04/2026

Building Common Ground is excited to introduce the inaugural Fieldwork Fellowship cohort.

Across the country, rural and Tribal communities are doing the hard and hopeful work of keeping stories alive, protecting cultural knowledge, reclaiming gathering spaces, and creating places where future generations can see themselves reflected.

Our work is to design and develop the spaces that will amplify those stories and bring that knowledge to life.
Over the next 18 months, Fieldwork and partners will work alongside these communities through design support, coaching, workshops, peer learning, site visits, and a national Summit to help strengthen projects and move ideas toward implementation.

From Hawai’i and Alaska to Maryland and Mississippi, this cohort spans six time zones and includes projects rooted in cultural centers, public spaces, Indigenous knowledge, main streets, museums, and community memory. Some are preserving what is at risk of being lost. Others are building something their community has needed for generations.
More than 140 communities applied to Fieldwork. Reading through those applications was a powerful reminder that important work is happening in small towns, Tribal communities, and rural places across the country every day — often with limited resources, but with a deep commitment and care for place.
We’re honored to start our partnership with this cohort and excited to share more about their work in the coming weeks.

Read the full announcement: link:https://www.bcg.studio/

05/21/2026

Exciting new stuff that we’ve been up to this past year! TBD Studio has been working with Oasis to design and construct a new elevated outdoor classroom and gathering space within the wooded landscape of their campus near Washington, DC.

The structure creates space for teaching, gathering, reflection, and recreation 20 feet above the forest floor. We combined a timber frame, custom steel knife plate connections, bent wood guardrails, and a spiral stair that was assembled directly within the site all to bring this project to life.

Beyond just design, our team participated directly in the fabrication and construction of the structure itself. We milled and cut the timber members, fabricated and welded the steel brackets, placed the columns and beams, and assembled the structure on site alongside collaborators and builders. Rather than separating design from construction, the project developed through hands-on making, coordination, and problem solving at full scale.

The project supports Oasis’ ongoing work with youth through outdoor education and community-centered programming.

05/12/2026

When the Natural Resources Defense Council came to us, they presented a big challenge: what should office space look like for a global environmental organization in a post-pandemic world — and could we pull it off on a fast timeline? Naturally, we said YES!

This Chicago office was all about balance — quiet focus and collective exchange, sustainability without sacrificing budget, and design that actually reflects who NRDC is. We sourced materials from within 50 miles and drew inspiration from biomimicry and the Chicago River. Senior Workplace Strategy Management Specialist Victoria Curley shares what made this one so special, in her own words.

Big thanks to the team, their contractors and project managers, and for being such wonderful collaborators every step of the way.

Video by Emmanuel Gbede and To Be Done Studio

04/02/2026

In January, To Be Done Studio had the privilege of visiting the Lahaina Jodo Mission’s 2.8-acre grounds, a historic Japanese Buddhist temple site, where most of the structures were completely destroyed by the August 2023 fires. The remaining ceremonial bell and Great Buddha statue, overlooking a peaceful green space, still create a sanctuary where heritage, tradition, and culture meet the clear waters of the Pacific Ocean at Pu’unoa Point.

Beyond the buildings, the Mission is committed to honoring Native Hawaiian culture and the ancestral ties to this land, ensuring the reopening of this space is rooted in respect for its history and community. A critical part of this vision is coastal restoration. The Mission is not just rebuilding; they are envisioning the site as a resilience hub, restoring its natural relationship with the ocean and land while creating a space that nurtures gathering, healing, and future preparedness.

While the regulatory and funding hurdles are vast, we are inspired by the Lahaina Jodo Mission and its community of members, neighbors, and friends who are dedicated to its continuity as a welcoming spiritual and multicultural space that addresses the needs of the community while remembering its founding by Japanese immigrants over a hundred years ago. With this in mind, rebuilding cultural infrastructure is the foundation tying together the past, present, and future of Lahaina.

We are officially wrapping up the feasibility study and moving into the Master Planning phase soon. To Be Done Studio is honored to play a part in helping the Lahaina Jodo Mission realize and share its Buddhist values through a design approach that heals both community and land, now and for generations to come.

03/09/2026

What does a Fieldwork project look like?

In Grenada, Mississippi, we worked alongside community members to imagine a pavilion shaped by its landscape and the rhythms of everyday life. Sketching, model-making, and open conversations helped turn ideas into something tangible.

Moments like these remind us that design is strongest when it’s shared. Helping it turn into something that serves who it’s for.

Good Morning From Wind River. We're back, collaborating with and learning from the Eastern Shoshone People. This cultura...
11/19/2025

Good Morning From Wind River. We're back, collaborating with and learning from the Eastern Shoshone People. This cultural hub will offer a space to safeguard and study vital artifacts, recordings and documents and share them with the community, visitors and those passionate about the Tribe’s rich heritage.

Onward! The Eastern Shoshone, Cultural Hub will exist! It has to.
05/10/2025

Onward! The Eastern Shoshone, Cultural Hub will exist! It has to.

I’m so thankful to do a little “key-noting” at , re-connect with friends and make some new ones. The Epicenter Summit ...
04/24/2025

I’m so thankful to do a little “key-noting” at , re-connect with friends and make some new ones.

The Epicenter Summit engages artists to collaboratively produce site-specific work and engage in dialogue that pushes contextually embedded practice toward experimental and critical interventions.

Follow along at to learn more!

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Black Coal Dr, Fort Washakie, WY 82514
Fort Washakie, WY
82514

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