MAS is pleased at the City’s announcement today that the two portions of Broadway around Herald and Times squares closed to vehicular traffic since June of last year are to be made into permanent pedestrian plazas.

The goal of the Department of Transportation (DOT) pilot program was to reduce travel times around Times Square and Herald Square by eliminating the congestion where Broadway meets Sixth and Seventh avenues. This goal was achieved in part, but other direct consequences of reclaiming these streets for pedestrians, including a 35 percent reduction in pedestrian injuries, and the creation of 2.5 acres of new public space in one of the city’s densest neighborhoods, are the most exciting outcomes.

MAS welcomed the experiment when it was first announced last March as a great step towards creating improved, pedestrian-friendly streetscapes, and we congratulate Mayor Bloomberg and Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan today on having taken this bold step.

MAS President Vin Cipolla said, “Making these two new public plazas permanent fixtures of our streets is a fantastic achievement that promotes what Jane Jacobs called the ballet of the sidewalk — the unrehearsed choreography of people moving through the city. It will be of enormous lasting benefit to New Yorkers and the vitality of our city’s street life.”

Originally, the City had discussed extending the closures of Broadway further to the south, but there seem to be no plans at the moment to do so.

To read more about MAS’ advocacy on New York City streetscape issues click here.

In late October 2009, we reported that the Department of Buildings and the AIA New York Chapter had teamed up with an array of other civic organizations to organize an international design competition to re-imagine the maligned sidewalk construction shed. Yesterday, the city announced that a winning design has been chosen from three finalists.

The winning design, chosen by a jury including MAS Chairman David Childs, is titled Urban Umbrella and was developed by Young-Hwan Choi, a 28-year-old student at the University of Pennsylvania. His design will improve quality of life, reduce construction impacts on businesses, increase pedestrian safety, and increase available space for pedestrians on sidewalks, while also complimenting the city’s architectural beauty. Continue Reading>>

The Municipal Art Society of New York, along with six civic organizations, today filed a brief with the New York Supreme Court as amici curiae, or friends of the court, to assist the court in resolving the issues presented in Protect the Village Historic District, et. al, v. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, et. al.

The case arises from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission’s (LPC) determination that St. Vincent’s met the judicial test for hardship and could proceed with the demolition of its Edward and Theresa O’Toole Building, on Seventh Avenue between 12th and 13th streets. The Commission reached its preliminary determination in October of 2008, and issued its Final Notice to Proceed in May of 2009.

Joining MAS in filing the brief are the New York Landmarks Conservancy, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, The Preservation League of New York State, The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, The Brooklyn Heights Association and Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts.

In filing the brief, MAS and other amici have taken the uncommon step of supporting neither party to the litigation.  The primary function of the submission is to assist the court in reaching its determination by outlining the proper judicial test for hardship relief, as well as the regulatory takings analysis on which that test is premised. Continue Reading>>

Dr. Dickson Despommier, panelist at the upcoming 2nd Annual Jane Jacobs Forum Re-Imagining New York: Designing Urban Farms to Feed our City, recently spoke to Tamara Coombs of MAS about why he sees urban “vertical farms” as key to the future, not just of cities, but of the planet.

Ten years ago, Columbia University microbiology professor Despommier began investigating different approaches to agriculture that would feed the additional 3 billion people that are estimated to be born in the next 50 years. This research project, which he conducted with the help of his students, has grown into a popular website The Vertical Farm Project, an op-ed in The New York Times and a new book coming out next year, and garnered attention from municipalities (Newark, NJ), architecture and engineering companies, and the Obama administration along the way. Continue Reading>>

Sidewalk sheds are required whenever renovation or new construction takes place on a building, or a Department of Buildings inspector suspects an unsafe condition exists. These sidewalks sheds are erected in order to protect pedestrians and typically remain in place for nearly a year, sometimes even longer. Currently there are more than 6,000 sidewalk sheds standing in New York City, spanning more than a million linear feet. 

The Department of Buildings and AIA New York Chapter have teamed up with an array of other civic organizations to organize an international design competition called UrbanShed that seeks a brighter future for this unique New York City structure. Contestants had been asked to design a sidewalk shed that is sustainable, economical and attractive.  Continue Reading>>

On September 24th, an intrepid group of Richard Morris Hunt patrons gathered for a private boat tour of the Gowanus Canal. The tour was a rare opportunity to visit a historic waterway and see some of Brooklyn’s most interesting historic industrial buildings and travel through the “museum” of historic draw bridges still in operation on the canal.

The discussion on the boat focused on the fact that the canal and the adjacent manufacturing area is currently at the center of a debate about how to best clean New York’s polluted waterways and sensitively develop in its manufacturing zones. The tour leaders, Lisa Kersavage, Senior Director of Advocacy and Public Policy at MAS, Dan Wiley, Community Coordinator for US Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, and Josh Verleun, Staff Attorney/Investigator of Riverkeeper, a NY-based nonprofit that advocates for clean water, all brought different perspectives to those issues. Continue Reading>>

This fall, the Municipal Art Society, supported by funding from the New York Community Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will launch a major campaign to promote the positive environmental benefits of preserving and improving the efficiency of New York’s historic buildings.

Yesterday, MAS staff was interviewed on NPR about the sensitive greening of the Empire State Building, currently underway, that aims to dramatically reduce the icon’s energy consumption. Improving the efficiency of the city’s buildings is a key step in tackling the climate change crisis, and Lisa Kersavage, Senior Director of Advocacy and Policy, stated that the intention of MAS’s new campaign is to change the popular misconception that the best way to do this is to demolish old buildings and erect new green ones, saying “construction-related debris accounts for 60 percent of New York City’s waste stream.” Continue Reading>>

This morning, MAS President Vin Cipolla moderated a panel discussion considering how to diversify New York City’s traditionally finance-heavy economy in light of the ongoing global financial crisis.

One of four major topics to be addressed at the conference Thinking Big, New York and London: Heading Back to the Top beginning today, the panel focused on issues germane to the economies of both these cities, including: what urban governments can do to encourage start-up ventures and emerging industries; what the implications are of slowing real estate development; how to sustain cutting-edge arts-based creative economies and niche manufacturing in a future of increasingly high costs; and what the role of landmarks and historic preservation is in that future.

Other topics for examination at the conference, which kicked-off today with a conversation between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Mayor of London Boris Johnson, are: the future of concentrated financial districts; housing production, affordability and global competitiveness; and, the infrastructure systems that make great cities work. Continue Reading>>

As the City Council prepares to vote on the Coney Island rezoning, The New York Times ran an editorial today urging its passage and at the same time supporting MAS’ recommendations to improve the plan.

“We like the Municipal Art Society’s idea of doubling the size of the amusement area and removing hotels from the south side of Surf Avenue. This way, when visitors get off the subway, they will meet sunlight and open air, not a high-rise barricade.”

MAS strongly support the City’s goals of revitalizing Coney Island, but believes the plan can be improved to make Coney Island the absolute best destination and benefit to the city it can be. Read The New York Times editorial in its entirety after the “continue reading” jump. Click here to read MAS’ statement to the City Council and see our massing study. 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>>