We build the city: NYCs Design + Construction Excellence Program This book features a selection of the exemplary infrastructure public realm and civic building projects developed during New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloombergs administration under Commissioner David Burneys groundbreaking Department of Design + Construction Excellence (D+CE) program. This publication celebrates the DDCs commitment to the idea that design matters and that great design reinvigorates public spaces and ultimately transforms peoples lives. The DDC has been lauded for its fresh approach to facilitating innovative and collaborative architecture and urban planning solutions and improving public buildings spaces and communities with a focus on design that reflects important key values: education and culture health and safety and diversity and opportunity. The D+CE program has offered dynamic design and construction strategies that have inspired some of the best architects and engineers in the world and given the citys small firms the opportunity to work with the DDC to reimagine and reshape the built environment. From the Queens Botanical Garden Mariners Harbor Library Brooklyn Childrens Museum and the Bronx Museum of the Arts to Madison Avenue Houston Street Columbus Circle the Central Park Precinct and PSAC II the DDC and its pioneering D+CE initiative has helped to transform all five boroughs of the great City of New York