Brownsville has been shaped by decades of disinvestment. The cumulative effects of redlining, government neglect, and inadequate public infrastructure left the neighborhood struggling with poverty, vacant lots, and the largest concentration of public housing in the nation. Yet, Lewis-Allen found inspiration in the built environment around him.

One of his earliest memories of community transformation occurred across the street from his home. A building had burned down, and one of his neighbors cleared the charred remains and planted a community garden. It was the first time Lewis-Allen had witnessed the reimagining of something neglected into something useful and beautiful. The garden became a gathering place—proof that vacant spaces could be transfigured to fulfill a neighborhood need.

In high school, he enjoyed spending his time drawing, designing, and creating, but he lacked exposure to the range of associated careers. One thing he had been told was that architects could make a good living doing creative work. So, he applied to architecture schools and enrolled in UB’s School of Architecture and Planning.

Lewis-Allen describes his experience at UB as “a microcosm for career exploration.” Supported by faculty mentors, supportive classmates, and well-equipped facilities—including a fabrication workshop that he still considers the best he’s ever seen—he gained the technical skills that would prepare him for what came next. While balancing a demanding studio workload and as many as three jobs at a time, he also developed strong time-management skills and learned one of the most important lessons of his career: the value of social capital.

“UB is very well connected in the Buffalo region,” he observed. “I had exposure to a vast social network, architectural significance, and the ability to reach into communities and leave behind something beneficial.”

After graduating, Lewis-Allen began searching for work and recalls meeting a Black architect for the very first time, who encouraged him to apply for prestigious master’s programs to help navigate a profession still dominated by white men. “To this day, I thank that man for understanding my potential and what the barriers might be,” he shared.

Setting his sights high, Lewis-Allen was accepted into multiple elite master of architecture programs, and the next fall, he enrolled in Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. There, he became chair of the Social Change and Activism Group, leading hands-on architecture and planning workshops in local high schools. That experience planted an idea that would continue to grow.

While taking a brief hiatus from Harvard, Lewis-Allen returned to New York where he balanced work at an architecture firm with a weekly role at the Brownsville Partnership. There, he learned about the impact of vocational training on high-risk youth and started to train others to help him with design work for the Brownsville Community Justice Center (BCJC).   

At the same time, he watched BCJC empower young people to take an active role in reshaping their neighborhood, helping reduce incarceration rates through community engagement and placemaking. He also drew inspiration from Artists for Humanity, a Boston organization that employs youth to create professional artwork for office lobbies and gallery spaces. Together, these experiences sparked a vision: a creative space where young people in Brownsville could learn design skills, build portfolios, receive mentorship, and explore meaningful career pathways.

Armed with this new concept, Lewis-Allen returned to Harvard and joined the iLab residency program, working with volunteers to craft its mission, vision, and a pitch deck. He brought the concept to BCJC, which quickly recognized its potential and became the first partner of Made in Brownsville—the organization that would later become Youth Design Center.

They launched in 2013 with an anti-violence campaign led entirely by a youth cohort who developed branding, marketing materials, and merchandise, also inspiring a temporary mural at Osborn Plaza. Today, that same plaza has been transformed through permanent improvements like expanded green infrastructure and a curbless elevated intersection.

“It’s really beautiful now,” Lewis-Allen noted. “But all the activations that happened within the time before the capital construction were led by young people.”

Changing the narrative around Brownsville was a big goal for the organization from the beginning.

“Made in Brownsville became a moniker for recapturing the narrative of place and telling our own stories through our own lens,” Lewis-Allen shared. “When you used to google ‘Made in Brownsville,’ the first thing that came up was another arrest made in Brownsville. Now when you google it, it’s youth-led solutions and art and brands that they built.”

As the organization’s impact expanded across all five New York City boroughs, a new name became necessary. In 2021, Made in Brownsville became the Youth Design Center and moved into a larger facility at the corner of New Lots Avenue and Powell Street. The space now hosts workshops in graphic design, digital media, 3D design and architecture, woodworking, photography, filmmaking, and more. Its Creative Apprenticeship Program—for ages 14 to 24—offers three immersion courses as well as internship and job-placement opportunities. More than 344 young people have completed the program and remain part of the YDC community.

“We work with our alumni longitudinally,” Lewis-Allen explained. “If they come to us and they’re 29 and lost their job, we try to find them something else. It’s less of an ‘in-and-out’ and more of a ‘we got you’ type of environment.”

The outcomes are striking. Seventy percent of respondent alumni have secured meaningful income within 12 months of participating in the program, and one-hundred percent of high school students graduate.

Their latest venture, The Corner by YDC, extends that support even further. It’s a co-working space built to provide resources for creative professionals and help apprentices make valuable industry connections. It opened in April 2026 in response to the dearth of creative workspaces accessible to that community. The space now serves more than 50 members and includes a fabrication lab with woodshop, 3D printing, laser cutting, and apparel printing; a production studio for photography, videography, and podcasting; meeting pods; and shared space designed to foster connection and collaboration.

As Youth Design Center has grown, so has Lewis-Allen’s role. While he once spent time teaching directly, he now serves primarily as a strategist, fundraiser, and relationship builder, leading a staff of 15 people. And while he wishes he could provide all their services free of charge, the unfortunate reality is that nonprofit impact depends on financial stability. That reality led him to create an affordable membership model for The Corner by YDC—one that lowers barriers for members while helping fund the organization’s mission.

Looking back, Lewis-Allen credits his architectural education at UB with giving him the experience to help tackle disparities in his own community. “I also built a foundation that I can lean on,” he added. “Like the friends that I made through intensive late nights at UB, the kind of lifelong friends that you need to build an organization like Youth Design Center.”

For current UB students, his advice is straightforward: follow what energizes you.

“Take the electives that fuel your passion. Volunteer for that off-site community engagement project that you think might take too much time, but it’s probably the one thing that you’ll remember most from all four years. I still think of what a great time I had in Buffalo, and the people I met, and the things I was able to accomplish.” 

Thirteen years after its founding, Lewis-Allen is proud of how Youth Design Center has evolved to meet the unique needs of the community it serves. At its core, the organization is about trusting young people with real responsibility and creating pathways to lasting opportunity.

“As the adults, if we're trying to solve a problem, we have to relinquish power to those who are most impacted by it,” he reflected. “Give them the keys to the space, let them manage it, let them run it. And if it needs to transform into something else, at least they have a head start. I think that's the mission—closing the wealth gap. If we're starting from zero every time, you can never build intergenerational wealth. That's hopefully what we're disrupting by having Youth Design Center in the place where it's needed most.”