It’s hard to believe that August is already upon us, and fall is right around the corner. We at MAS have had a busy summer preparing for a provocative, informative fall season, as we introduce our first annual Next for New York programs.

Next for New York will explore the next wave in urban planning, preservation and climate change, and civic activism, as well as specific projects that will help shape the future of New York City.

This year, Next for New York includes three major events: Preservation & Climate Change Conference, the MAS Summit for New York City and the Jane Jacobs Forum. These programs will engage New Yorkers in stimulating discussions about urban livability and the future of our city and cities around the world.

“There’s no question that cities are pivotal as nations everywhere are dealing with growing populations, climate change and threats to sustainability,” said MAS President Vin Cipolla. “Through this very exciting annual series, MAS will examine a host of issues that New York is facing as a global city that also is a city of distinct neighborhoods.” Continue Reading>>

Photographs by Giles Ashford.

Last month’s Spotlight on the Garment District programs were a resounding success, with more than 400 audience members joining in on the discussions on the future of New York City’s fashion industry. The first panel, moderated by Tim Gunn, reinforced the significant findings of the Made in Midtown study conducted by the Design Trust for Public Space and the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The speakers highlighted the district’s role as a fashion research and development hub, where the city’s fashion industry nurtures new talent while making significant contributions to the city’s economy. The second panel, moderated by Deborah Marton of the Design Trust, dealt more generally with the unique qualities of creative urban districts and how they might be sustained.

MAS plans to continue focusing on how the city’s built environment, the fashion ecosystem that interconnects the users and uses that make the Garment District so important, affects entrepreneurship and how the Garment District can be used more effectively to secure New York City’s position as a fashion capital of the world. Future programming planned for the fall will reflect on the ways in which foreign countries are reacting to the globalization of the industry, and how existing fashion capitals can stay competitive when emerging economies offer cheaper labor and lower production costs. MAS will look at the garment industry in several nascent fashion capitals in Asia to better understand the composition of the industry there and the national policies that promote it. Check back with MAS for more on the developments of the Made in Midtown study and for future related events.

Join some of the most brilliant names in urban and fashion design for the follow-up to last week’s sold-out panel on the future of New York’s Garment District. This panel will discuss the cultural, economic and social contributions of creative communities. IDEO Partner Fred Dust, Parsons Dean and branding expert Simon Collins, and fashion entrepreneur Andrew Oshrin will offer their unique perspectives, as NYU sociology professor Harvey Molotch and Columbia University’s Sarah Williams discuss the characteristics of and factors that nurture the growth of these communities. Deborah Marton, executive director of the Design Trust for Public Space, will lead the discussion, drawing from the Trust’s recent Made in Midtown study of the Garment District. For more information and tickets click here or call 212 935 2075.

Urban Creative Districts
Tuesday, June 15, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. Reception to follow.
At the School of Visual Arts Theater, 333 West 23rd St. (between 8th & 9th avenues) MAP
Moderator — Deborah Marton, executive director, Design Trust for Public Space
Panel — Simon Collins, dean, School of Fashion, Parsons the New School for Design; Fred Dust, partner, IDEO; Andrew Oshrin, president & CEO, Milly LLC; Sarah Williams, director, Columbia University Spatial Information Design Lab; Harvey Molotch, professor of Sociology and Metropolitan Studies, New York University.

New York’s midtown Garment District is one of the city’s most iconic neighborhoods, and it is undergoing rapid change. Join MAS on Tuesday, June 8, to learn about the many interdependent industries and businesses that make the district so distinct. Tim Gunn, chief creative officer of Liz Claiborne, Inc. and host of Lifetime TV’s hit show, Project Runway, will moderate an expert panel on how New York’s fashion industry works today, its role in the city’s economy, and its future prospects.

Panelists include: Sarah Crean, deputy director, New York Industrial Retention Network; Eric Gural, executive managing director, Newmark Knight Frank; Madelyn Wils, executive vice president of the Planning, Development and Maritime division, NYCEDC; Deborah Marton, executive director, Design Trust for Public Space; Michael Meola, consultant, formerly senior vice president, Real Estate and Special Projects, NYCEDC; and Yeohlee Teng, designer, YEOHLEE Inc.

The programs will discuss Made in Midtown, a study of the Garment District, produced by the Council of Fashion Designers of America and the Design Trust for Public Space, with additional research support from MAS. Visit MAS.org/programs for more information and tickets.

Innovative public servants and savvy transportation and public space advocates are working to transform urban streets into “Complete Streets”, in which the street is shared equitably between all users — pedestrians, cyclists, bus passengers, motorists and truck drivers.

Last Thursday, at Scandinavia House, MAS hosted a fascinating program on the city streets of today and tomorrow. Focused on the key challenges to, and best practices in, contemporary street design, and highlighting examples from the Netherlands, Chicago and New York City, Paul Steely-White of Transportation Alternatives moderated an expert panel including: Gary Toth of Projects for Public Spaces (PPS); Andrew Wiley-Schwartz, assistant commissioner of NYC DOT, Nicole LaRusso of ADNY; and Janet Attarian of Chicago DOT.

Click on the player above to listen to a summary of the program or, to download it to your hand-held device, click here to open-up the MAS iTunes page.

Learn more about MAS’ work on streetscapes in New York City at MAS.org/publicpolicy, and to listen to more MAS podcasts, visit MAS.org/audio.

Should streets be treated as places? How is the New York City Department of Transportation transforming our city streets? Will the entire city benefit? What are the possible economic benefits of this new holistic approach?

As streets across the United States are being changed to accommodate the needs of all users (pedestrians, bicyclists, bus riders, the old, the young, and car and truck drivers), this Thursday’s program, The Complete Street, will feature four exceptional presentations — including one from Janet Attarian, director of Streetscape & Sustainable Design Program, Chicago — on urban streets as they are and could be.

In Chicago, melding complete streets and ecological design has resulted in sustainable changes both practical and pleasing, such as permeable pavers and landscaped medians that reduce storm water run-off while offering visual pleasure (see image above). Here in New York, bicycle paths have opened and sections of Broadway have closed to create pedestrian plazas, an experiment that will become permanent. What are the best practices in contemporary streetscapes? What are the challenges? How can improvements be funded and maintained? How can civic momentum be maintained from one administration to the next? Join us for an engaging discussion of the city streets of today and tomorrow. Continue Reading>>

If you missed Tuesday night’s panel, Light Fight: What’s Effective, Sustainable & Affordable, you can now listen to a summary of the fascinating discussion about the future of New York City’s street lighting that took place between some of America’s most prominent lighting designers and engineers and City officials in this podcast.

Moderator Randolph Sabedra of RS Lighting Design, and chair of the NYC public outreach committee, Illuminating Engineering Society New York City introduced the panel comprised of: Howard Brandston of Brandston Partnership, Inc.; Margaret Newman AIA, LEED AP, chief of staff, New York City Department of Transportartion; Peter Morante, director of energy programs, Lighting Research Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; and Denise Fong IALD, LC, LEED AP, Candela, Seattle.

The discussion ranged from research into the human eye’s ability to perceive different kinds of light to the ways in which urban livability is influenced for good and bad by different types of street lighting illustrated with examples from as far afield as Shanghai, Copenhagen and Chicago. [To listen to the full, uncut footage of the panel discussion, click on the audio mp3 icon.]

The next event in our April panel series, New York’s Changing Streetscapes, is The Complete Street: Sustainable, Healthy & Pleasurable will take place on Thursday, April 29, at 6:30 p.m., at Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave., and addresses attempts to create an urban street that considers the needs of all its users — pedestrians, bicyclists, bus passengers, motorists, and truck drivers — and seeks an equitable allocation of resources. Tickets are $15, $10 MAS members and reservations are required. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075. To become a member of The Municipal Art Society, visit MAS.org/membership.

For more MAS podcasts, visit MAS.org/audio or visit our iTunes page.

Ahead of next Tuesday’s panel discussion Light Fight: What’s Effective, Sustainable & Affordable? in which she will feature as a panelist, internationally-renowned lighting designer Denise Fong talks to Tamara Coombs of MAS about the challenges and complexities of what is a fundamental issue of urban livability and public safety: street lighting.

Selecting the best street lighting for the “City That Never Sleeps” might seem to be a straightforward task of choosing what costs least and illuminates most, but the question is more complicated. How do you factor in energy efficiency and sustainability? Do laboratory measurements of light sources accurately reflect the way light is perceived on the street? What are the advantages and disadvantages of high pressure sodium and metal halide lights? New York City is participating in a pilot project using LED-technology. Is LED technology the certain way of the future or does it have its own drawbacks? What choices have other cities made—and why?

On Wednesday, April 7, MAS’ April panel and tour series New York’s Changing Streetscapes continues with architect and author of Twenty Minutes in Manhattan Michael Sorkin engaging an expert panel in a lively discussion of the good, the bad, and the ugly of our city’s famous streetscapes.

The panel, Are New York’s Streets Out of (Design) Control promises to be a fantastic opportunity to hear from people on all sides of the debate about the future of our city’s streets. Questions to be considered will include: Why are New York’s streets filled with the visual chaos of loud signs, tacky newsracks, graffiti–covered phones that don’t work and as many styles of street furniture as there are Business Improvement Districts?; Do other American cities do a better job?; Are we now heading in the right direction?; Do the NYC Street Design Manual, sleek bus shelters and award winning urbanSHED design signal a better future?; How do we learn from past mistakes and avoid turf battles?; And, what needs to happen next? Continue Reading>>

Growing out of the popular exhibit Unpacking My Library that looks at the book collections of some of the most influential architects working today is the new accompanying book Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books. Join moderator Barry Bergdoll, the Philip Johnson chief curator of design at MoMA, next Tuesday, December 8, at MAS, for the launch of this book and a fascinating discussion among renowned architects Stan Allen, Billie Tsien, Bernard Tschumi, and Tod Williams about their personal book collections and the importance of them to their careers.

Unpacking My Library is a publication of Urban Center Books, the MAS bookstore, and is published by Yale University Library. It is on sale now in the bookstore and copies are also available online at www.urbancenterbooks.org.

The exhibit Unpacking My Library is on display at MAS now through mid-January. For more information and gallery hours, click here.

Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books
Tuesday, December 8, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., at MAS
$15, $10 MAS members. Reservations and pre-payment recommended. Purchase tickets online or call 212 935 2075. MAP.