Urban Design Forum is a New York City nonprofit that convenes architects, planners, developers, public officials, and scholars to shape a more just and thriving city. It formed in March 2014 through the merger of the Institute for Urban Design, established in the late 1970s by journalist Ann Ferebee, and the Forum for Urban Design, which had held its inaugural conference in 2005 on rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The organization runs a network of more than 1,100 civic leaders through programs including the Forefront fellowship on housing and public space, a Global Exchange series of international study trips, the Local Center community design network, and a New City Critics writers fellowship run with the Architectural League.