The Municipal Art Society of New York

On Tuesday, April 21 at 6:30 pm, MAS will host a panel discussion on Transforming America’s Cities: Creating a National Urban Policy.

In this podcast, urban planning professor Genie Birch talks with Eve Baron of MAS about the changing political landscape and potential opportunities for the metropolitan region in light of President Obama’s creation of an Office of National Policy to oversee all federal urban programs and integrate policies linking transportation, housing, economic development, energy, and environmental issues.

Moderated by Vicki Been, director of NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, this panel featuring leading academics, policymakers, and practitioners will examine the implications for New York City and consider innovative solutions to create a more sustainable future in the metropolitan region.  Additional panelists will include Christopher Jones, vice president for research at the Regional Plan Association, Toni Griffin, director of community development for the City of Newark, and Anthony Shorris, director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at NYU.

$15, $10 MAS members.  Purchase tickets online at www.mas.org or call 212 935 2075.

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In this podcast, architectural historian John Kriskiewicz talks to Tamara Coombs of MAS about his April 2 lecture, The 100th Birthday of Two Great Bridges: The Queensborough & The Manhattan, celebrating the centennial of the Manhattan and Queensboro Bridges, and explains why their construction marks New York’s metamorphosis from an island city to a modern metropolis.

Join MAS as we celebrate the centennial of two of the eras great bridges with a lecture and two walks across the neighborhoods they transformed. $15, $10 MAS members. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075.

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Renowned architectural photographer and long-time Broadway resident Cervin Robinson chats with Elizabeth Werbe of MAS about the images and inspiration behind his exhibition By Way of Broadway: New York Photographs by Cervin Robinson, which opens with a reception tonight, Wednesday, March 25, 6:00 p.m., at MAS.This collection of black & white and color photographs explores New York’s visual landscape with thirty views of the 17-mile length of Manhattan’s main street taken over the course of three decades.

The exhibition opens to the public tomorrow, Thursday, March 26, and will be on display through Thursday, May 7, 2009. Visit www.mas.org/exhibitions for gallery hours and more information.

The Department of City Planning is holding a hearing today about its proposal to rezone 25 blocks along the Gowanus Canal to allow for a mix of uses, including residential, commercial, retail, light industrial, community facility and artist spaces.

MAS believes that existing businesses in this thriving manufacturing district should be nurtured and safeguarded, and that the rezoning presents a tremendous opportunity to create space for new industries and jobs. We are concerned that, given the area’s industrial past and present, and the lack of adequate sewage and storm-water infrastructure, new residential development may not be the best solution for the Gowanus neighborhood. Read our full statement here.

The video above is also available as a podcast below, and through iTunes.

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For more information about MAS advocacy on Gowanus, click here.

A group of more than 50 New Yorkers gathered last night in Herald Square for an after-dark walking tour. They came to hear about the difference between high pressure sodium (HPS) and metal halide (MH) lighting from Howard Brandston, one of this country’s leading lighting designers — and to see the difference for themselves. The City is in favor of HPS lights to save energy, money, and lessen light pollution of the night sky. The streetscape committee at MAS favors MH.

Under HPS lights on Eighth Avenue, fair-skinned people looked yellow, evergreens appeared brown and dying, and primary colors (held aloft on colored foam core boards) turned muddy and difficult to distinguish. Howard Brandston described HPS lighting as appropriate for roadways and highways, but not for a city which (as Lewis Mumford wrote) “…exists not for the passage of motor cars, but for the care and culture of man.” Continue Reading>>

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Noted lighting designer Howard Brandston, whose commissions include the Statue of Liberty and Battery Park City, will be leading a free walking tour on Thursday, March 5 at 6:30 p.m. to examine how different kinds of electric light can highlight architecture and increase livability or decrease visibility and hamper livability.

In this podcast [click on player above to listen], Mr. Brandston discusses the ways that lighting in the city can affect a citizen’s perception of color and peripheral vision, its impact on crime and property values, and how different kinds of lighting is appropriate in different circumstances, with MAS Director of Tours & Programs Tamara Coombs.

For more information about the tour, including meeting place, click here, and to learn more about this issue click here.