Today, MAS President Vin Cipolla released a statement (below) regarding yesterday’s announcement by Senator Charles E. Schumer, Governor David A. Paterson and Amtrak president Joseph H. Boardman that an agreement has been made on the future development of Moynihan Station.

“After a decade of starts and stops, the future looks brighter for Moynihan Station. The agreement reached by Amtrak, Governor Paterson and Senator Schumer is a critical step towards expanding and improving the nation’s busiest train station.

The plans include moving many of Amtrak’s services into a new train hall that will be built in the James A. Farley Post Office, just across the street from Penn Station. While design details have not been released, the agreement furthers Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s vision for a grand work of civic architecture that stands as an inspiring gateway to New York City. With Amtrak as the primary tenant of the new hall, the station can be designed to support the needs of its intercity rail travelers. According to Amtrak, roughly 25% of the nation’s Amtrak passengers pass through Penn Station at some point on their journey. 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>>

The White House Office of Urban Affairs offers hope of a new direction in federal urban policy, including that for transportation. Public transportation is critical to a sustainable future for our city and the metropolitan region, essential to integrating housing, economic development, and environmental practices and policies.

What is the Obama administration doing that will help or hinder the development of the transportation system we need? How can local stakeholders ensure that the smartest investments receive federal support? An outstanding panel will answer these and other questions next Wednesday as New Yorkers face fare hikes and service cuts.

Investing in Infrastructure: Transportation and New York’s Future
Wednesday, May 6, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., at the Municipal Art Society MAP
Reception to follow.
Moderator: Kate Slevin, director, Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
Panelists: Susan Bass Levin, deputy executive director, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; Linda Bailey, federal programs advisor, New York City Department of Transportation; Jeffrey Zupan, senior fellow, transportation, Regional Plan Association; Martin Robins, founding director, Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center, Rutgers University.
$15, $10 MAS members. Purchase tickets online or call 212 935 2075.

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.

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.

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

Recently, we were asked the following question on our Facebook page “With all the talk about President Obama’s Economic Stimulus Package and its billions of dollars for public works projects, what’s happening with the Moynihan Station project?”

MAS remains a strong supporter of Moynihan Station. The project will increase capacity at the over-crowded (and miserable) Penn Station, which is the nation’s busiest transportation hub, with nearly half a million people passing through it every day. We don’t know whether the project will receive money from President Obama’s stimulus package, but it certainly seems to be eligible. Continue Reading>>

A: The new MTA bike rack. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has installed its new prototype bike rack (see left) at 151 West Broadway between Chambers and Leonard streets in Manhattan. Raised above street level this bike rack and bench seating street furniture is also a vent for the subway that has been specially designed to reduce flooding into the underground system. Following its current testing period, this prototype will be replicated at 15 locations in the same vicinity.

Following the large storm of August 8, 2007, in which service on significant portions of the New York City transit system were severely disrupted by flooding, the MTA embarked on several initiatives to prevent similar disruption in the future. Designed by Grimshaw Billings Jackson with Systra/HNTB, these stormwater-flood reducing vents are among the first such measures to be implemented. Continue Reading>>

As the City Council considers changing term limits from two to three today, so the urban planning, architecture, and design community is pondering what a third Bloomberg term would mean for New York City’s built environment. Though MAS has not endorsed Mayor Bloomberg’s potential bid, MAS President Kent Barwick said in an interview with Architect’s Newspaper, published today, that one had to respect the “vision and leadership” the Bloomberg administration has demonstrated toward initiating urban planning efforts.

Streetsblog revisited an MAS exhibit from the last economic downturn in New York City titled “Steel, Stone and Backbone” to remind readers that New York City has built its most significant infrastructure and beloved cultural institutions in times of meager finances.  Given Bloomberg’s reliance on heavy private investment to see current development projects through, the New York Observer takes a less optimistic perspective.

In other news, the cost of acquiring all of the land in Willets Point is murky and Councilmembers are questioning the City’s budget. Continue Reading>>

Last Friday, Governor Paterson announced his intention to move forward with the construction of Moynihan Station which will be led by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.  The Governor stressed that adding rail capacity and linking up the Station to other major transportation and infrastructure projects, as MAS has also suggested, were the most critical goals in moving forward.  Learn more about MAS’ response to the Governor’s announcement at New Penn Station.  To read the Governor’s full press release, click here.

This Wednesday, MAS will host “Coney Island at the Crossroads,” a panel on the City’s current redevelopment plan for Coney Island; read about the program on Kinetic Carnival.

In other news, the winners of the design competition to reimagine Grand Army Plaza have been announced. Continue Reading>>

The Javits Center will expand, though more modestly than originally planned, after all (New York Times). The Javits Center is one of several key projects that will affect the future development of Moynihan Station and the far west side of Manhattan. Learn more on New Penn Station

In other news, as more housing is built on Roosevelt Island, the limited transportation infrastructure is strained (New York Observer). Continue Reading>>