If you’re a young person living or working in New York, you play a vital role in this city. More than one-third of all New Yorkers are under the age of forty and the collective influence of young New Yorkers on this city’s future will be substantial.

Whether you’re a new or a native New Yorker, your voice and passion for urban living is something we at MAS recognize and share. For over ten years, MAS has offered hundreds of individuals, early in their careers, broad exposure to the critical issues of urban planning, design and public space through our Urbanist program.

We invite you to join us! MAS seeks to engage an even larger group of young New Yorkers in our work, by adding a new level of membership in 2010. Consider joining at the basic-Urbanist level, $65 annually, or at the Leadership level, $250 annually.

Urbanist members are invited to join MAS President, Vin Cipolla twice a year for a policy briefing and private reception. Our next meeting will take place at MAS on the evening of Wednesday, January 13, 2010. E-mail Alexis Meisels for more information.

Click here to read more about the MAS Urbanists, additional member benefits and upcoming events.

After nearly 30 years at the Villard Houses, MAS is moving its headquarters to the Steinway Hall Building, at 111 W.57th Street in mid-January. As we prepare to vacate our erstwhile home, we took the opportunity to consider the history of this notable palazzo-style brownstone building that was originally built as six townhouses. And who better to do this with than MAS Richard Morris Hunt Patron, Clarence Fahnestock Michalis, who was born in the Villard Houses at 455 Madison Avenue more than 80 years ago?

MAS Director of Annual Giving, Robin Lynn, traces the early days of these buildings with Mr. Michalis, whose great-grandfather was the first occupant of 457 Madison Avenue, and reflects on their changing identity and ownership over the intervening 124 years.

Click the ‘play’ icon on the player above to listen to this podcast or click here to launch iTunes and download the file to your mp3 player.

To learn more about MAS Richard Morris Hunt Patrons program or other levels of MAS membership, visit MAS.org/membership.

“What if you could live, work and raise sheep in the same building?” is just one of the provocative ideas raised by the proposals commissioned by the Downtown Alliance in the newly installed exhibit in Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan. Chris Reynolds, MAS Urbanist and Assistant VP of Planning for the Downtown Alliance, and representatives of the firms Beyer Blinder Belle and ARO/Architecture Research Office recently led a group of MAS Urbanists on a special guided tour of the exhibit.

The Downtown Alliance, also known as the Lower Manhattan Business Improvement District, commissioned input from architects, urban planners, and artists for this outdoor exhibit, imagining the changes that might lead to a vibrant future for “Greenwich South,” an area roughly bounded by Broadway to the East, West Street to the East, Liberty Street to the North, and Battery Place to the South. Continue Reading>>

This Friday the Tribute in Light will illuminate the skies over Lower Manhattan for the eighth year to commemorate the attacks on the World Trade Center. The Tribute in Light honors those who were lost on September 11, as well as those who worked so hard to get our city through its greatest trial.

The idea for the lights was independently conceived by several artists and designers, who were brought together under the auspices of the Municipal Art Society and Creative Time. The Tribute in Light is now produced annually by the MAS on the September 11th anniversary. It was designed by John Bennett, Gustavo Bonevardi, Richard Nash Gould, Julian Laverdiere, Paul Myoda and lighting designer Paul Marantz. Tribute in Light is made possible by a grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and with the generous assistance of Con Edison. Continue Reading>>

James Ames was like so many of our steadfast MAS members: he came to many events, he supported our advocacy work and he renewed his membership every year. Mr. Ames was an MAS member for well over thirty years and he remained a loyal member until his death in 2008.

MAS was honored to learn recently that Mr. Ames had left a bequest to MAS: a generous, unrestricted gift of $20,000. “Everything will go to the programs he enjoyed, from advocacy efforts to public activities,” says James S.J. Liao, MAS Vice-President for Finance and Administration.

Born in the Bronx in 1926, Ames was a lifelong New Yorker who remained an active and involved resident of the city for his entire life. He worked for over four decades for the City as an engineer for the Department of Environmental Protection. He lived in Jackson Heights, within a historic district, and was active in the Catholic Church there. Continue Reading>>

About eight years ago, architectural historian Matt Postal read about two fellows who wanted to transform a derelict railroad structure into a park. Matt soon got the go-ahead for a walking tour, “In the Shadow of the High Line,” from then-tours director Jill Anson.

Neither Jill nor Matt knew if anyone would be interested. Sixty people showed up the first time MAS offered the tour — and the second time it was offered, and the third. Matt continued to lead the walk every year, as the park became a reality. For years, tour takers wended their way along the base of the High Line, through a then-raffish neighborhood of warehouses and meat markets. Last Saturday, on a perfect summer’s day, Matt led MAS members up the stairs and into the light. They had a shared, audible response. Wow. Continue Reading>>

It is forecast that by 2030, there will be one million additional people living in the City of New York. However, our transit systems – our roads, our subways, our buses – are already at or near capacity. How will all these people get around? Will the city they inhabit have a people-friendly, walkable cityscape, or will they inhabit a warren of automobile corridors?

On June 16th, the MAS Urbanists participated in a walking tour of some of the areas of Manhattan in which the Department of Transportation (DOT) is testing how street capacity can be increased. Led by Ed Janoff, DOT Senior Project Manager for Streetscapes and Public Spaces, urbanists observed how the agency, with a small budget, cooperation from other city departments, and a very limited design vocabulary, is creating new public spaces. While these spaces will have more permanent design elements added over the next three years, part of the beauty of these new spaces derives from the ingenuity with which they were arranged. Continue Reading>>

The Urbanists — the MAS membership group of young New Yorkers in their 20s and 30s —  joined advocacy staff on Wednesday night for an informal, insider’s presentation of the advocacy campaigns MAS is championing this year.

Over drinks, Urbanist members learned about the critical role that historic preservation plays in the future of a sustainable city (“the greenest building is the one that is already built”); saving the irreplaceable 19th century buildings of Admiral’s Row, adjacent to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and adapting them to new uses; and, the new vision and plan for Coney Island, one of America’s most iconic neighborhoods. Continue Reading>>

When Diane Lloyd arrived at Radio City Music Hall at 6:00 p.m. two nights ago, the theater was “dark”, but the lights were on for the MAS Patrons. She, and 53 others who had braved the nasty weather that night, were in for a truly rare treat. Hugh Hardy — the architect and mastermind of the building’s 1998 award-winning restoration — gave an insider’s behind-the-scenes tour of this world-famous concert hall. From the stunning art-deco lobby with its 60-foot ceilings, to the iconic auditorium, from the stage, to the smoking rooms (where no-one is allowed to smoke anymore), to the complex system hydraulic lifts underneath the stage, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all. Continue Reading>>

Architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable was born and raised in New York City. She attended good schools, but believes that “being in New York was the education.” In 1963, Ms. Huxtable became the first architecture critic at The New York Times (indeed, the first architecture critic at any daily newspaper in the United States). She won the first Pulitzer Prize for criticism and was a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. Above all, she is a writer who knows what she thinks and says it.

Members of the Municipal Art Society and the Architectural League of New York are invited to join Ms. Huxtable and MAS President Emeritus Kent Barwick on Wednesday, January 21, at 7:00 p.m., for what will doubtless be a fascinating conversation between two of the city’s most eloquent voices in the fields of architecture and urban planning.

Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075.