Press release: Lucy Pickford to lead in the interim as Phineas Harper steps down from heading up Open City

22 March 2024 - After four years as Open City chief executive, Phineas Harper is stepping down from their position to pursue their writing and curatorial career

Open City’s Chief Operating Officer Lucy Pickford will lead the organisation in the interim as an extension of her current role and is supported by the wider senior team: Open House Festival Director Celia Mead, Head of Education Sarah Philips, and Head of Tours Merlin Fulcher. The charity is now looking to appoint a new director to head up the next chapter in its pioneering work making architecture and built heritage more open and accessible to all.

Phineas’ ambitious leadership and innovative approach to Open City’s events programme is credited by the Trustees for transforming Open City into a more diverse and socially impactful organisation. Since 2020, the charity has launched 17 new Open House Festivals around the world and created multiple award-winning programmes - including the launch of the Accelerate Debates, exploring the most critical issues to the design of our cities today. In this time the charity has also made its activities more accessible through digital platforms and secured long-standing grant and corporate partnerships to support the organisation’s ongoing success and growth.

Albert Williamson Taylor, Open City President and AKTII co-founder, said: “On behalf of the Trustees and the senior management team at Open City, I thank Phineas for their exceptional creative input as chief executive over the past four years. The achievements they have made with Open City’s fantastic team leave an incredible legacy.

“This year the annual London Open House Festival focuses on community building and becoming ever more accessible in partnership with its key stakeholders while our young people education programmes have reached an incredible milestone of 4,500 participants. I know that with the guiding light of Lucy Pickford and the exceptional senior team, and its wider community of supporters and stakeholders, Open City is in a great place to go from strength to strength.”

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Notes to editors

About Open City

Open City is a charity with a mission to make our built environment more open, accessible, and equitable. We do this through:

•                Our flagship event Open House Festival, opening up and celebrating London and its communities each September

•                A year-round Young People’s programme which includes city-making workshops at primary and SEN schools, as well as the award winning mentoring programme Accelerate for young people traditionally excluded from architecture.

•                A year-round programme of events, tours, books, and merchandise to democratise public knowledge about cities and the way we live in them

•                Managing a network of 50+ Open House Festivals around the world, from Lagos to New York.