In 1986 the Art Commission of the city of New York forged a partnership between the Public Art Fund and the 14th Street–Union Square Local Development Corporation in an attempt to solicit new design proposals for the city’s newsstands. In an effort to provide the City with innovative design alternatives, the Public Art Fund’s Project Committee decided to sponsor a design competition involving artists and architects. The goal of the competition was
to create prototypical newsstand designs providing tangible alternatives to the standard box. Designs from over 20 artist/ architect teams were reviewed; proposals from three were selected and exhibited at Storefront as Part I of Post-Consumerism. Part II, Designs and Ideas for the Waste Stream, exhibited ten proposals for managing garbage, or the urban ‘waste stream,’ and its distribution and flow through public space.