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New tech high school hears from Local 375 architects

Local 375 members Ricardo Hinkle and Joshua Barnett shared their experiences as public-sector architects with students at City Polytechnic High School of Engineering, Architecture, and Technology in Brooklyn.

“It was a very good group,” said Barnett, describing the group of nearly 20 students in the Art and Architecture class he visited. “It was fun to talk to them.” Barnett is a licensed Architect and Construction Project Manager 2 at the city Housing Authority, and Hinkle is a Landscape Architect 3 and president of the local’s chapter at the Parks Dept.

The two visited the school as guest lecturers on the recommendation of Jon Forster, a Local 375 delegate to DC 37 and former 1st vice president, who serves on the new school’s board of advisers.

Barnett’s April 7 talk, “Giving to the Community,” covered the need for affordable housing, the history of the authority, construction of public housing in the city, and authority staff’s design work for community centers at Ingersoll Houses in downtown Brooklyn and Bronxdale Houses.

On April 9, Hinkle gave the students an overview of the landscape architecture work of the Parks Dept. and focused on two of his waterfront projects, Barretto Point in the South Bronx, which opened three years ago, and Harlem River Park, which opened April 28.