Funding Innovation

Raymond Savino

Faculty Success

President, IDC Foundation

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In 2022, the IDC Foundation awarded a major grant to support the opening of Pratt’s Research Yard in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Today, this leading-edge, 20,000-square-foot facility buzzes with creative energy, as students and faculty pursue projects around topics ranging from the lived experiences of people impacted by housing insecurity to how design can support circular systems of energy and water use in Red Hook. “The IDC Foundation focuses its grantmaking on advancing innovation at the intersection of architecture, engineering, and building construction in New York City,” explains Raymond Savino, the Foundation’s president. “The Pratt community embraces and stimulates collaboration across these fields, which makes it an especially exciting educational institution to support.”

Funding from the foundation has played a pivotal role in establishing a strong presence at the Navy Yard for Pratt, which has since expanded to include 100 art studios, seminar and critique spaces, galleries, a computer lab, fabrication shops, and a Performance Lab. “The vibrant ecosystem of the Navy Yard—which is home to more than 550 businesses, adjacent to Downtown Brooklyn and just a short ferry ride from Downtown Manhattan—adds to the potential for interdisciplinary collaborations and to the opportunities for Pratt students and faculty to be engaged even more fully in the city’s creative economy,” Ray continues. 

Ray recently attended Pratt’s annual Research Open House, where he observed firsthand the transformative work taking place at the Institute. “The ingenuity I saw was fascinating. One project focused on developing prototypes of mud bricks that would be capable of withstanding flooding and were formed with the robotic arm in Pratt’s Pi-FAB facilities. A second is exploring the potential to manufacture the bricks for use in the building sector,” says Ray. “The IDC Foundation is pleased to have been able to provide, in 2025, another major gift to support Pratt’s interdisciplinary research endeavors. Pratt is a dynamic catalyst for the interdisciplinary innovations that the IDC Foundation supports and that fuel the Research Yard’s continued evolution, momentum, and leadership.”

Part of Pratt’s reputation comes from an emphasis on having established practitioners serve as faculty members.

Byron Lars, Jane B. Nord Professor of Fashion Design
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Donor generosity shows the world how Pratt is a place that shapes essential solutions for our planet’s future needs.

Cindie Kehlet, Professor, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences; AquaSteady Research Hub Lead in the Center for Environmental Research
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World Makers will provide resources to support additional fellowship opportunities and hands-on workshops that enable faculty members to forge radically creative solutions.

Judit Török, Director of the Institute’s Center for Teaching and Learning
A woman in a dark blazer and colorful scarf smiles while holding an open book in a library. She has shoulder-length dark hair with some gray and appears to be enjoying the book, surrounded by shelves filled with various books in the background.

With this endowed professorship, I am pleased that my valuable experience at Pratt and my commitment to art education offers new opportunities to emerging academic leaders in the field.

Jane Nord, Art and Design Certificate ’45; Former Professor

Endowing Excellence

Jane B. Nord Professor of Fashion Design Byron Lars brings his years of professional experience to the classroom.

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Seaweed Solution

Professor Cindie Kehlet, AquaSteady Research Hub Lead, shows how Pratt “shapes essential solutions for our planet’s future needs.”

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Makers and Shakers

Judit Török, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, looks to enable “faculty members to forge radically creative solutions.”

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