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>>

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>>

Update via MAS Twitter: DOB Rule Breaking News: as MAS asked, DOB delays start-date until mid-April (instead of 3/9) for more public input twitter.com/MASNYC.

At a public hearing this afternoon, MAS will urge the Department of Buildings to further evaluate two new rules on the public challenge process for building approvals. The rules are scheduled to be implemented on Monday, March 9. 

“While DOB’s new rules are a commendable effort to advance public discourse on building approvals, MAS believes that further evaluation of the public challenge process and careful consideration of today’s testimony should take place before the rule is put into effect,” said David Schnakenberg, Menapace Legal Fellow for the Municipal Art Society. 

MAS suggested that DOB convene a working group to consider the testimony and the input it has received today. MAS offered to participate in any way that might be helpful to improving the rule and realizing the Mayor Bloomberg’s goal of meaningful public review of DOB approvals. Continue Reading>>

The City may be changing the way the Department of Buildings does business. Under a potential new rule, the agency would post on their web site diagrams of proposed new buildings or major enlargements. The diagrams will depict the size and scale of new building projects. The new rule will also institute a 30-day period in which the public can review and challenge the development approval. According to the city, this new time period is intended to “prevent confusion and unnecessary or unintended costs for development in New York City.”

The city is holding a public hearing on Friday, March 6 at 3:00 p.m., at 280 Broadway, 3rd  Floor Conference Room. The proposal is scheduled to take effect only three days later — Monday, March 9.

We invite you to join the Municipal Art Society of New York for a briefing on the rule, on Tuesday, March 3 at 8:30 a.m. David Schnakenberg, Menapace Legal Fellow and Eve Baron, Director of the MAS Planning Center, will present an outline of the rule, discuss some of the consequences and invite the community to share concerns, comments and ask questions. Continue Reading>>

The New York City Council will hold a public hearing next Monday, January 26, at 1:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall on Intro. 623 which proposes to allow advertising on sidewalk construction sheds for a yet to be determined permit fee. The Municipal Art Society will testify against this ill-conceived plan. [Read MAS press release here.] Download our testimony, here.

Outdoor advertising and sidewalk construction sheds blight our city’s streetscape. The City wisely seeks to regulate outdoor advertising with strict zoning regulations and imposes design guidelines for sidewalk construction sheds, but the City Council now wants to combine these two eyesores with a permit that would allow outdoor advertising companies to advertise on sidewalk sheds in manufacturing and commercial zoning districts. Read coverage of this issue in Metro NY, January 27, 2009. Continue Reading>>

The New York Times reported Sunday that the City of New York granted the Yankees rights to three billboards along the adjacent expressway in return for an exclusive luxury box at the new stadium.  The hubbub following the release of a series of email messages between Bloomberg aides focuses on the loss of advertising revenue to the city, however the recent signage regulations passed by the Department of Buildings ban all signage along arterial highways. To learn more about MAS’ advocacy on illegal outdoor advertising, click here.

In other news, the interior renovation of Cathedral of Saint John the Divine on the Upper West Side is nearly complete the full interior of the cathedral is now open and free of scaffolding after a fire damaged much of the artwork and pipe organ in 2001. Continue Reading>>

Both Moscow and Los Angeles are tackling serious billboard problems. In Los Angeles bright LED screens shine across neighborhoods, intruding into homes and distracting drivers. In Moscow, the historic areas around the Kremlin are marred by endless billboards. Both these cities are taking aggressive action to remove and slow the encroachment of these ads. One unique approach in Moscow is the city’s strategy of phasing in the restrictions and compensating the ad-industry for losses on unexpired contracts with their billboard clients. Ad companies will be compensated for each surface that is removed.

Here in New York City, when the Buildings Department finally issued rules for city for billboards in 2006 to a new law regulating outdoor advertising passed in 2001, the city was promptly sued by an outdoor advertising company and the city has failed to enforce regulations while the lawsuit is pending. Once the lawsuit has been resolved, we hope the city will start using the effective regulations that are in place to curb an industry that is rapidly overrunning our city.

To advertise for its Mobile Art Pavilion, being constructed in Central Park this fall, Chanel has draped an illegal fifteen story billboard onto its 57th street facade; Vanessa Gruen, Director of Special Projects at MAS commented on the ad in the New York Times blog.

In other news, the New York City Economic Development Corporation has purchased three more parcels of land in Willets Point nearly doubling their land acquisition to date but leaving the City far from owning the entire site (Crain’s New York Business).

The new TKTS Booth in the center of Times Square has opened and can remain so throughout the winter (New York Times). Continue Reading>>

amNew York reports today that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is considering putting advertising on New York City buildings and vehicles, such as garbage trucks, to add up to $10 million to the City’s budget in these meager times; Vanessa Gruen, Director of Special Projects at MAS comments stating that eventually, the City will hit a saturation point with outdoor advertising.

The Gowanus Lounge reports that the City’s Economic Development Corporation has purchased park of the Deno’s Wonderwheel site in Coney Island – a parcel that would be part of the amusement park in the proposed rezoning (see also New York Post).