We envision a world where the built environment reflects the voices, values, and needs of diverse communities. Where the design process is collaborative. Where people are active agents of change. Where the design industry reflects the diversity of communities. Where residents, civic leaders, and designers co-create resilient and inclusive spaces.
Public Programming
Informed and engaged residents are central ingredients of a successful community. That’s why we host public programs that amplify a diversity of voices and address relevant topics.
Research & Grants
Large-scale, complex challenges require cross-disciplinary thinking. That’s why we convene experts and innovators from all backgrounds. Our research and grants bring issues of inequity in design to the forefront.
Design Education
A thriving design industry relies on a pipeline of diverse, talented, and passionate practitioners who infuse new ideas and disrupt established patterns. That’s why we provide youth with opportunities to discover and explore careers in design.
The Hideo Sasaki Foundation is named after Hideo Sasaki, a Japanese American landscape architect who came of age in WWII. Hideo was internationally respected as a landscape architect, planner, teacher, and mentor. He became a leading figure in America’s twentieth century modern design movement.
In 2000, to honor Hideo’s memory, Sasaki established the Hideo Sasaki Foundation, which included a bequest from Hideo’s family. Ken Bassett, Elizabeth Meek, James A. Sukeforth, and Alan Ward were the founding trustees.
Today, we continue to carry forward Hideo’s legacy. We award grants to community-led projects that embody collaborative design. We host public events to advance the design practice and amplify diverse voices. We run design education programs that connect youth with design practitioners. All our work advances equity in design.
Want to learn more about Hideo?
2025
Celebrating our 25th anniversary, our day-long symposium explored Hideo’s legacy and the future of collaborative design.
2024
We launched the Designing Environmental and Social Impact (DESI) paid high school internship.
2023
Thanks to city and state workforce grants, we expanded our Summer Exploratory Experience in Design (SEED) paid high school internship.
2022
We moved to downtown Boston with Sasaki.
2020
We led the Mobility Innovator, a year-long research initiative funded by the Barr Foundation and in partnership with Sasaki.
2019
We hosted the Design Mentorship Program, a monthly after school program for Watertown middle school students.
2018
We launched the Summer Exploratory Experience in Design (SEED) paid high school internship.
We launched the Design Grants program to support community-led design projects.
With Sasaki, we celebrated the public opening of the Incubator at Sasaki.
2017
With an updated mission, we shifted to active programming to advance design equity in Greater Boston.
2012
Through the Society for College and University Planning, we funded the M. Perry Chapman Prize, a research grant awarded annually through 2016.
2009
For more than half a decade, we supported the Boston Architectural College’s Hideo Sasaki Distinguished Visiting Critic program and Collaborative Global Practice program.
2002
We were a lead sponsor for the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Landscape Futures Initiative, a multi-year symposia series.
2001
Over four years, the Hideo Sasaki Foundation scholarship program provided scholarships to 24 students at 12 universities across the country.
2000
Sasaki established the Hideo Sasaki Foundation.
