We expect that the Environmental Protection Agency’s Gowanus Canal Superfund designation will create the comprehensive clean up plan this polluted waterway so desperately needs. We believe the Gowanus area has great potential as a thriving manufacturing and arts district.

The city has pledged to support the EPA’s clean up efforts. MAS looks forward to working with the city on developing a plan for the Gowanus area that nurtures and safeguards existing businesses and creates space for new industries and sorely needed job growth.

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>>

“I have been actively discussing this [expanding the area available for open-air amusements] with the administration. Those discussions have been fruitful and are ongoing. I hope that by the time the entire City Council votes on this plan, on July 29th, I will have great news for everyone.”
– New York City Council Member Domenic M. Recchia, Jr.

MAS believes that Coney Island has extraordinary potential and we strongly support the City’s goals towards revitalizing it. Over the past year, we commissioned an economic study; convened a charrette (an intense design workshop) of entertainment experts; held an call for ideas; held numerous public meetings and workshops; and submitted extensive testimony and a massing study to the City.

Negotiations over the sale of privately owned land to the City and over the size of the outdoor amusement area at Coney Island are still ongoing. MAS recommended that the acreage for open-air amusements be expanded from 12 to 25 acres and that the high-rise hotels currently planned for the south side of Surf Avenue be moved to the north. To read The New York Times endorsement of our recommendations, click here.

If you agree that these recommendations are important, please contact your City Council Member before the scheduled vote this Wednesday, July 29. Click here to find your Council Member’s contact details.

In honor of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s historic voyage, we are heading up the river that bears his name next Wednesday on the 18th MAS Annual Boat Tour. We’ll learn about the changing fortunes and some ongoing struggles concerning the river and its shoreline, as well as the storied past and present of the region. Early on, we’ll enjoy commentary by the inimitable Francis Morrone to accompany views of the buildings and parks lining the Upper West Side. Beyond Manhattan, we will continue with the Palisades to our port side and Spuyten Duyvil and Yonkers on the starboard, as we listen to historian and novelist Firth Haring Fabend talk of Dutch settlers in the Hudson Valley and what they left behind. We’ll return as the sun goes down, sailing under the George Washington Bridge (and by the Little Red Lighthouse) and arriving back in Midtown as the streetlights come on.

18th MAS Annual Boat Tour:
Along the Historic Hudson – New York Past and Present

Wednesday, July 29, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m., at Pier 83, 42nd St. and 12th Ave., New York MAP
The Circle Line Boat leaves promptly at 6:00 p.m., rain or shine.
$75, $50 MAS members. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075. Join MAS now and save on the boat tour and on MAS walking tours and programs throughout the year.

The City Council Land-Use Committee could be voting as soon as next week on the Coney Island rezoning.  MAS strongly supports the city’s goal of revitalizing Coney Island. We also strongly support the city’s efforts to acquire land to create a publicly-owned open-air amusement park,  which we believe is the best way to ensure amusements in perpetuity. We do, however, have recommendations to improve the plan, which are detailed in our full written testimony, which have submitted to the City Council along with a massing study (see slideshow below, or click here to download a PDF) prepared by our Planning Committee.

Vin Cipolla, the President of the Municipal Art Society of New York, today testified before the City Council, strongly supporting the city’s goals for Coney Island and suggesting improvements to the rezoning plan in the areas of urban design and preservation.

“I am here today to urge the Council to adopt the city’s plan for Coney Island — the city’s plan is the greatest hope for revitalizing Coney Island, which can not be lost to private development interests,” said Mr. Cipolla. “Coney Island is the last great oceanfront park land opportunity in the region — and Coney’s continued demise would be a tragic loss to the citizens of New York, to the country and to the world. MAS strongly believes that the city — that the public — must own enough land at Coney Island to ensure a vital amusements district.”

“We believe there is enormous opportunity in this area and we strongly support the city’s goals toward revitalizing Coney Island,” Mr. Cipolla added. Continue Reading>>

Last Wednesday, MAS hosted an all-star panel of park designers, administrators, and other experts to discuss the latest on some of New York’s most exciting park projects. The projects ranged in scale from small — the new Concrete Park Project in the South Bronx — to extremely large — Fresh Kills in Staten Island and Riverside South on the Upper West Side. The presentations and discussion focused on the challenge of developing sustainable parks on challenging sites in a time of economic uncertainty.

For those who were not able to make the event, we’ve put together a highlight of the Fresh Kills presentation – a project that, as its administrator Eloise Hirsh acknowledged, MAS was instrumental in making happen. For more information, visit www.mas.org/freshkills.

Join award-winning designer Tom Balsley, FASLA, and Michael Koontz, ASLA, of Thomas Balsley Associates, for a walking tour of Riverside Park South this Sunday. This park, notable for both its design and financing, celebrates the specific natural and industrial past of the site.

It is a new sort of park landscape for New York, one of tall grasses, leafy trees, abstract forms and references to the site’s past as a mammoth rail yard. All of the park’s construction and maintenance is privately funded.

Riverside Park South Walking Tour

Sunday, May 31, 11:00 a.m.
Meet at stairs at 73rd Street and Riverside Drive. Before 3:00 p.m. today (Friday 5/29/09), please purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075, or walk up on Sunday morning. $15, $10 MAS members. MAP.

 

 2008 YGCPA Winner Jeanne DuPont talks to Lacey Tauber: Play Now | Play in Popup

Ahead of this year’s Yolanda Garcia Community Planner Award (YGCPA), MAS’ Lacey Tauber talks community activism in the Far Rockaways with last years’ YGCPA winner, Jeanne Dupont, Executive Director of the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance.

MAS is accepting nominations for this year’s award through Friday, May 29 (2009). For more information, and a copy of the nomination form, click here.

Join architectural historian Francis Morrone on Mother’s Day for a stroll through historic DUMBO, including parts of three Historic Districts: Fulton Ferry, DUMBO, and Vinegar Hill. Atmospheric streets of beautiful old factory and warehouse buildings combine with stunning riverfront vistas to make this a uniquely appealing area. DUMBO is also home to interesting stores and restaurants that you may wish to explore after the tour.

For more information about DUMBO, its buildings and their industrial heritage, visit www.saveindustrialbrooklyn.org, a website created by MAS to draw attention to the threatened buildings lining the Brooklyn waterfront.

Mother’s Day in DUMBO Walking Tour
Sunday, May 10, 11:00 a.m.
Meet at York and Jay streets, upstairs from subway. The tour will end near the Fulton St. Pier. (Transit: F train to York St.) $15, $10 MAS members. Reservations required.
Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075 to reserve.