Urban Center Books, the bookstore of the Muncipal Art Society, will close in January 2010, when we vacate the Villard Houses. MAS headquarters is relocating to the Steinway Building, at 111 West 57th Street, and a search for a new location for Urban Center Books (UCB) is underway.

Urban Center Books will be open in its present location throughout the holiday season, offering shoppers a diverse collection of books on architecture, design, New York, landscape design and urbanism.

We expect to reopen Urban Center Books in a new location by the fall. Urban Center Books will continue to have an online presence, at www.urbancenterbooks.org, and we hope our patrons visit us online until the store reopens. Check the UCB web site for updates on the move.

The winners of the 2009 MASterwork Awards are The Standard Hotel for Best New Building, the Times Square TKTS Booth for Best Neighborhood Catalyst, the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons, The New School for Design for Best Renovation/Adaptive Reuse, and The Lion House at the Bronx Zoo for Best Restoration.

Launched in 2001, the MASterwork Awards recognize excellence in architecture and urban design, and are organized annually by MAS and sponsored by Helaba, Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, the international banking and investment group. The four awards presented this year are for projects completed in 2008.

“The MASterwork Awards celebrate the year’s ingenuity in architecture and design across various building types,” said Vin Cipolla, president of MAS. “Year after year, MAS is continually impressed by the way these projects influence the way all of us view and live in the city.” Continue Reading>>

MAS congratulates long–time board member and President of Jujamcyn Theaters, Rocco Landesman, on his recent nomination as the next Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). His appointment, which is expected to be officially made by the White House today and later confirmed by Congress, signals a new direction for the arts community throughout America.

“Rocco brings fantastic energy and enthusiasm to everything he does,” said MAS President Vin Cipolla, “I am convinced that through his great entrepreneurial experience and savvy, and thorough understanding of the nonprofit world, the arts in America stand to gain enormously.” Continue Reading>>

Internationally acclaimed architect David M. Childs has been named Chairman of the Municipal Art Society, succeeding the incumbent Philip K. Howard. Mr. Childs, who served as a design partner and Chairman of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, and has been a board member of MAS since 1986, will work alongside new President Vin Cipolla, a nationally recognized leader in the preservation, arts and business communities, who joined the organization in January of this year. Mr. Howard will assume the role of Chairman Emeritus.

“We are honored that David Childs will serve as Chairman of MAS as the organization enters a new phase of growth and influence in New York City,” said Mr. Howard. “He (Mr. Childs) is an urban champion, and, as Chair, will provide powerful leadership for MAS in its mission to achieve intelligent urban planning, design and preservation.”

“I am excited to take on this new role at MAS, which has been a tireless advocate for New York City and those who love it,” said Mr. Childs. “MAS has an opportunity to provide invaluable guidance as the city evolves to meet new challenges and to further establish its position as a model for sustainable urban development and living.” Continue Reading>>

MAS will tonight present the results of the ImagineConey project, offering ideas for a visionary new 21st century amusement district and the steps necessary to achieve it.

At a public meeting at Our Lady of Solace Chuch at 6.30PM (MAP), MAS will present ideas generated by a team of international design, planning and amusement experts, as well as concepts generated through an innovative online “call for ideas” and from public workshops convened in Brooklyn.

Building on the City’s recent actions to revitalize the area, MAS will also set forth the steps it believes are necessary to successfully return Coney Island to its former place as a dynamic and robust entertainment and amusement destination.

Join us tonight!

Join MAS tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. for a news conference announcing our opposition to the South Street Seaport redevelopment plan proposed by General Growth Properties (GGP). The news conference will take place just prior to the hearing at the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) at which MAS will ask the LPC to reject the GGP proposal on several grounds relating to inappropriateness to the historic district.

Most importantly, we believe that the project overwhelms the historic buildings of the district, further severs the Seaport from its history, and destroys the sanctity of views from and of the Brooklyn Bridge. MAS believes that the entire concept of the project is flawed and misguided, and that it should be entirely re-conceptualized.

The news conference will be held in the plaza just south of the Municipal Building, 1 Centre Street (at Chambers) at 2:00 p.m. The LPC hearing is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. at the Municipal Building, 1 Centre Street, 9th floor.

Images of the proposed redevelopment can be found here.

Tonight the Rockefeller Foundation will award the 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal to Peggy Shepard, executive director and co-founder of West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT), and Alexie Torres-Fleming, founder of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice (YMPJ) in the South Bronx, at a ceremony at the Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan. The featured speaker will be Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Robert A. Caro, who won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Nonfiction Book of the Year for The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. The awards are administered annually by the Municipal Art Society.

Click on the “play” icon above to watch a video featuring the two award winners discussing their work, and click here to read the official press release in full.

Later this month, a series of MAS Jane Jacobs-themed walking tours begins, including Toxic Hazards and Cultural Treasures, a tour highlighting issues of environmental justice in Harlem led by Peggy Shepard. For more information, visit www.mas.org/tours.

After Astroland issued a statement earlier today that it has been unable to negotiate a lease extension and will close for good on September 7, MAS called on New York City to mediate a resolution between Astroland and Thor Equities to ensure that the amusement park returns next season.

“We cannot allow the last remaining amusement park in Coney Island to be reduced to rubble,” said Kent Barwick, President of MAS. “The plans currently on the table are speculative, inadequate, and would take decades to come to fruition. Astroland is real and serves as an amenity for millions of New Yorkers. The City must do everything in its power to save Astroland for the upcoming seasons, just as it saved the Cyclone, the Wonder Wheel and the Parachute Jump from certain death.”

MAS is working to ensure that redevelopment for Coney Island returns the areas to its former position as the “world’s playground”. For more MAS advocacy on Coney Island, visit www.mas.org/urbanplanning/coney-island.