When I assumed the presidency of the Municipal Art Society earlier this year, I was proud to join an organization with an unparalleled commitment to improving New York City’s built environment. My vision — shared by our Board of Directors — is to harness that commitment to transform MAS into a thought-leader on the subject of urban livability and to broaden our reach to new communities, so that we truly become the voice for the future of our city. Over the past year, we have made many significant strides toward these goals and I am pleased to share news of our progress with you.

In 2009, we developed and implemented a new strategic plan that better focuses our work in three major areas, which, in large measure, embrace the work MAS has always excelled in and is best known for — preservation and sustainability, planning for all New Yorkers, and place-making and visioning. MAS had begun to take on projects and commitments that, while worthy, were not consistent with our mission, and drained limited staff resources. Over the year, we committed to taking on fewer projects, and also to deepen our work on those areas of focus. This website provides a record of information on those initiatives and accomplishments.

And as part of that effort to bring new depth to our work, and to expand our presence throughout the city, we began to forge partnerships with universities, museums and other venerable New York institutions. These relationships will help enrich our work and expose MAS to new audiences — helping to further connect MAS to the concerns and interests of New Yorkers in all five boroughs. Continue Reading>>

This piece was first published on March 11 of this year, shortly after the City announced its proposal to pedestrianize portions of Broadway as of this past weekend.

When Washington Square Park was closed to traffic in 1959, prominent residents of Greenwich Village, including Jane Jacobs and Eleanor Roosevelt, celebrated with a ribbon-cutting and by burning a car in effigy. Their ceremony marked the conclusion of a decade-long fight with Robert Moses, who had insisted that the park must be traversed by cars in order to ease the city’s traffic congestion. New Yorkers today are reaping the rewards of Jacobs’ victory. Moses’ predictions of traffic coming to a halt proved false, and Washington Square Park is one of the city’s best-known and best-loved public places.

Today, we are on the precipice of a historic moment in reclaiming our streets for people instead of cars. Mayor Bloomberg and the Department of Transportation have announced an ingenious plan to reclaim part of Broadway — at both Times Square and Herald Squares — for pedestrians. Like the closing of Washington Square Park in 1959, their common-sense plan is also one of those rare instances when what is best for the pedestrian is also best for the driver. Continue Reading>>

As is often the case, Jane Jacobs said it best: “Streets and their sidewalks, the main public places of a city, are its most vital organs… If a city’s streets look interesting, the city looks interesting; if they look dull, the city looks dull.”  Citing Jacobs in a recent decision which affirmed the constitutionality of New York City’s billboards and signage regulations, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York rightfully recognized the City’s substantial interests in protecting neighborhood aesthetics and promoting traffic safety. For 115 years the Municipal Art Society of New York has been fighting to improve New York City’s streets; this decision, coupled with the City’s renewed promise to enforce its signage restrictions, is a significant victory in that fight.

The problems of outdoor advertising are not, of course, a recent phenomenon; when the New York Times noted that one of Manhattan’s most celebrated retail districts had become a “frightful spectacle” characterized by a “wilderness of discordant and shrieking signs” it was not merely recalling the ills of non-compliant signage, but forecasting them, in 1902.  Continue Reading>>