Ifeoma Ebo

Ifeoma is a Brooklyn based transdisciplinary designer with a track record in transforming urban spaces into platforms for equity and design excellence. She is Principal of Creative Urban Alchemy an award-winning studio working at the intersection of art, architecture, urban design, and planning centering cultural heritage in praxis.  As Distinguished Lecturer for Design & Sustainability at the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York she engages in research and teaches trans disciplinary courses exploring cultural, climate and environmental justice.

With a career spanning two decades, she has significantly impacted urban design and development projects, partnering with prestigious institutions like the United Nations, FIFA, and the NYC Mayor’s Office. Ebo has served on advisory boards for the Mayor of Helsingborg, Sweden H22 Smart City Initiative, Association for Community Design, BlackSpace Urbanist Collective, New York State Energy and Research Development Authority, the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and Dark Matter U.

Her work as an artist has been rooted in dynamic diasporic understandings of the Black experience and she has used her craft to advocate for, design/plan with and visually showcase the stories of communities of color.  She has also situated her practice in a design justice philosophy in which she uses the process and product of design to forward the efforts of racial, social, and cultural reparations.  Through all these efforts she strives to be an advocate for more just and equitable cities around the world.

Her artwork has been exhibited at the Oakland Museum, Cornell University Willard Straight Hall Gallery, MIT Rotch Library Gallery, and the African University of Science & Technology Center for the Advancement of Afrocentric Design. She has most recently received awards and fellowships from the Black Artists & Designers Guild, NYS Council on the Arts, Association for Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Architectural League, and United States Artists.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): Department of Urban Studies & Planning
Master in City Planning, City Design & Development
Certificate in Urban Design

Cornell University, College of Architecture, Art & Planning
Bachelor of Architecture, Charles Goodwin Sands Medal for Design Excellence
Certificate in Africana Studies : Africana Studies & Research Center

Regenerative Practitioner Certificate

Regenesis Institute

Publications & Media
2025 “Reparations in Public Space exhibition opening” coverage by the Nigerian Television Authority
2025 “Ifeoma Ebo interweaves afrofuturism, Diaspora narrative at exhibition” The Guardian Feb 2025 issue
2024 “Ifeoma Ebo is on a Quest for Urban Healing” Metropolitan Magazine Fall 2024 Issue
2023 “Bridging Advocacy and Design: Ifeoma Ebo’s Path to Empowerment and Equity” Disrupt Magazine
2021 “Perfecting a New York City Street” New York Magazine
2021 “Housing as Insertion Point for Creative Urban Alchemy” in Reconstructions: Architecture and
Blackness in America, ed. Sean Anderson & Mabel Wilson, The Museum of Modern Art
2021 Karl Krause “Whose Eyes on the Street?” Landscape Architecture Magazine
2021 Julia Gamolina “Creative Urban Alchemy: Ifeoma Ebo on Cultural Identity, Priorities in Design
Education and an Inclusive Design Process” Madame Architect
2020 Nate Berg, “Meet the Black design collective reimagining how cities get built,” Fast Company
2020 Spaces & Places, “On Reclamation and Representation,” Representation Matters Vol.II, Next City
2019 “Justice in Place: Design for Equity in the Hudson Valley” Columbia University GSAPP
2019 “Safe Places, Active Spaces: A Community Playbook for Transforming Public Spaces in Your
Neighborhood” NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice
2019 “Building Resilience and Inspiring Justice” 2019 Conscious Cities Anthology
2019 “Engaging Communities for Safer Public Spaces” Center for Active Design
2018 “BlackSpace Manifesto” BlackSpace Urbanist Collective
2017 “Design Around the Edges” Urban Omnibus
2017 “Designing Just Spaces” Urban Design Forum
2016 “Designing a Police Station That Serves the Community” Next City
2016 “Design & Construction Excellence 2.0 Guiding Principles” NYC Department of Design & Construction
2016 “Designing for All: How the City’s Libraries are Built for Equity” NYC DDC

Projects

2025 “Exodus and Dance Storywalk” Installation – Kingsborough Houses, Brooklyn, NY

2025 “Reparations in Public Space” Exhibition + Installation – African University of Science & Tech: Abuja, Nigeria

2025 Elktonia Heritage Park Masterplan; Annapolis, MD

2024 New Jersey Greenway Design Plan; Newark, NJ

2024 Sacred Oaks Regenerative Agriculture Community Masterplan; Madison, WI

2024 Brooklyn Black History + Heritage Corridor Activation Plan; Brooklyn, NY
2024 “Black History + Heritage Placards” Installation – Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
2024 “Reparations in Public Space” Exhibition + Installation – Flatbush Central Caribbean Marketplace: Brooklyn, NY