MFA AC+D students begin the program with a pre-semester, 10 day collaborative design-build intensive. The experience is intended to help students get to know each other, and learn how to work together by designing and building a project for an actual client. Emphasizing a philosophy of civic engagement, projects are selected based on their potential to benefit an organization or population that generally does not have access to the services of designers and makers. For the 2018 Design Build, AC+D students, led by Matt Miller (co-founder of Project H) and local artist and activist Cleo Davis, collaborated with the Urban League of Portland to design and implement innovative solutions to alleviate a particularly loaded intersection on Mississippi Ave and Russell Ave in downtown Portland.