The Municipal Art Society of New York

MAS Young Urbanists: Events Planned for 2012

MAS — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:17:23 +0000

We’re off to an exciting start to 2012 as we launch an exciting year with an expanded line-up of innovative new programming and social opportunities for Urbanists in their 20s and 30s.

Exclusive Architectural Tour

On February 21, Urbanist Emily Sottile will lead us on a comprehensive tour of EverGreene Architectural Arts studio, which is the preeminent architectural conservation and restoration firm in New York. 1.25 CEU credits are available for qualified participants. Register now and enter “urbanist” for a $10 discount.

2012 Urbanist Open House

On March 22 we’ll be opening the doors at the MAS Greenacre Library to you and potential Urbanists so you can stop by, have a glass of wine and chat with others, and find out what we’ve been up to at MAS and what’s in store for the upcoming year. Join MAS president Vin Cipolla for an informal evening to learn more about the people who care deeply about our city and find out how you can get more involved in building a livable, resilient New York. Register here for this event.

After Dark Party

Please save the date for our annual Gala at the New York Public Library which will take place on the evening of Thursday, April 19, 2012, when we will present our highest award — the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal — to two extraordinary New Yorkers: Joan Ganz Cooney and Peter G. Peterson. After the evening’s program is finished, we invite you and your friends to help us celebrate with good food, drinks and dancing at the After Dark party in the Astor Hall. Last year’s party was a blast…if you would like to help us plan this year’s After Dark party, please let us know!

We can use your help and event planning skills!

To get involved, email Alana Farkas at afarkas[at]mas.org or Paul Kelterborn at pkelterborn[at]mas.org

A Claim of Hardship is Disputed

MAS — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:43:56 +0000

The owner of the City and Suburban Company’s First Avenue Estate model tenement complex is making a claim of economic hardship for two of the complex’s landmarked buildings, which if granted would result in their demolition. The two buildings in question were built at the turn of the 20th century, and as part of First Avenue Estate complex, are important for their innovative design as well as in their role in social housing reform. MAS has long been a supporter of its designation and even filed an amicus brief upholding their landmark status.

The owners of the complex (from First to York Avenues between East 64th and East 65th Streets) submitted an application to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) for the demolition of 429 East 64th Street and 430 East 65th Street on the grounds that they do not generate a sufficient economic return. The New York City Landmarks Law’s economic hardship provisions are intended to ensure that landmarks regulations don’t deprive a property owner a “reasonable economic return” … “under reasonably efficient and prudent management.”

On Tuesday, January 18, Laurie Beckelman, a member of the MAS Board of Directors and Chair of the Preservation Committee, testified on behalf of MAS in opposition to the demolition and hardship appeal. Beckelman was the chair of the LPC when the buildings werefirst designated, and later de-designated by the now defunct Board of Estimates and Appeals (click her for more background). MAS opposition was based on the fact that the applicant failed to present the convincing documentation necessary for the LPC to determine the existence of a hardship. MAS based this position on an economic analysis commissioned by FRIENDS of the Upper East Side and undertaken by HR&A Advisors that revealed that it is possible for the buildings to generate a net annual return that is more than double the legal threshold of reasonable economic return, even with existing rent controlled and stabilized units.

MAS’s testimony (click here to read) focused on how the hardship application used data that is out of synch with the Upper East Side’s robust housing market. For example, the owner indicated that the market-rate apartments could only garner $600 a month in rent. That is an astonishingly low rent for any neighborhood in New York City, and particularly in the Upper East Side. Furthermore, even with those rents theowner assumes a 10-24% vacancy rate in the buildings, which is exponentially higher than New York City’s average 2.76% vacancy rate.

Laurie Beckelman, in testimony to the Landmarks Preservation Commission stated, “Saving these buildings will not only preserve an important part of the city’s cultural and historical legacy, but also the affordable housing the city so desperately needs. This can be accomplished while providing the owner a reasonable economic return, which was precisely the intention of the philanthropist-developers who first built these landmark model tenements.”

Kate D. Levin to Receive Blashfield Award

MAS — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:46:47 +0000

MAS is pleased to announce that Kate D. Levin, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs commissioner, will receive the Evangeline Blashfield Award for her inspired and visionary leadership in enriching our city’s vibrant arts and cultural organizations. Prior to her appointment, Levin was an Assistant Professor of English and Theater at the City College of New York and Associate Director of the Simon H. Rifkind Center for Humanities and the Arts. She will receive the award at the MAS Annual Meeting on March 1. MAS applauds her for all she has done and continues to do to make New York a more livable city.

The Evangeline Blashfield Award is named for the woman who, in 1893 at the age of 36, rallied a group of influential architects, sculptors and artists to establish the Municipal Art Society. Blashfield campaigned for changes in the urban environment to enhance the beauty of public spaces and to create civic amenities that improve and enhance the public realm. The award is bestowed on an individual in mid-career who has demonstrated these ideals through his or her civic activism. Past Evangeline Blashfield awardees include Deputy Mayor Patti Harris, Warrie Price, Susan K. Freedman and Majora Carter. Learn more about the Evangeline Blashfield Award.

City Builder Book Club: MAS Staffer Mary Rowe on Death and Life

MAS — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:58:55 +0000

Mary W. Rowe, vice president of strategy and partnerships at MAS, is this week’s guest writer for City Builder Book Club. The City Builder Book Club is a joint venture between the Centre for City Ecology and Creative Urban Projects to facilitate a deeper understanding of how cities work by hosting a guided reading and discussion of books that have developed and challenged ideas on urbanism. This winter, the book club is reading at book many of us at MAS hold dear, Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Read an excerpt from Mary’s article below, or read it in its entirety here. You can also read along with the book club, which is reading 1-2 chapters per week, through April. The reading schedule is listed their website.

Mary Rowe on the Introduction: Why you will read and reread this book

…This week we are to be reading the Introduction. On the page facing it, Jacobs chose to quote Oliver Wendell Holmes, whose ideas she greatly admired. I am struck by the hopefulness of the quote she chose:

“…more complex and intense intellectual efforts mean a fuller and richer life. They mean more life. Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether it is worth living is whether you have enough of it.” (Jacobs quoting Oliver Wendell Holmes, Front matter, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House, New York, 1961.)

The Introduction begins with a sentence for which she is now—in professional planning circles—infamous. “This book is an attack on current city planning and rebuilding.” The chapter—which is really a tour de force, summarizing the ideas that she will lay out in detail and the notions that will become, over time, generally accepted as the contemporary understanding of how great, large, complex cities thrive, or decline. But that first sentence has led what may have already been a narcissistically-preoccupied profession—urban planning—into thinking this book, and therefore city-building, is about them. (Attention readers who happen to be planners: You probably think this book is about you, don’t you…don’t you…?). It really isn’t. What we’ve seen in my lifetime (I am just slightly older than the book) is the democratization of city-building, with Jacobs’ neutralizing the traditional deference paid to ‘experts’, in favour of the real experience of people. Her practical, common sense analysis and shunning of grand approaches and universal theories was by her own powers—as Holmes advocated—by which she made sense of the city. She challenges her readers to do so also. Where has this left the profession of planning? If lay people—who live, work, and use the city in every way—know best what they need and want from it, what “expertise” does a planner bring? This is a worthy question, to which lots of planners have creatively responded (including several you will read here, in subsequent posts). But Death and Life is not about planning or planners. It’s about life.

As mentioned earlier, Jacobs wrote a new essay for the front matter of the 1992 edition, to include with the original Introduction. If your edition doesn’t include it, you might want to borrow a friend’s 1992 book or read an excerpt online as it provides a further challenge from the author to better understand how cities work, and the still generally unheeded implications for their planning and governance.

Reading Death and Life first in the Jacobs canon is important because the concepts here underpin her work that follows. In reflection you can see the seeds of subsequent volumes—how city economies grow, the challenges of governance and dependencies on “senior” governments, the importance of seeing connections—the “web” of organized complexity, her distrust of large “schemes” or one-size-fits-all universals (from the “right” or the “left”). And she lays out her method, to which you will see she returns again and again, as her “tactics for understanding”:

think about processes, not outcomes;
work inductively, not developing theories and applying them; and
look for the “un-average”—clues that explain things in smaller instances and quantities that may be instructive at larger scales. (For more information on this, see the final chapter of Death and Life, “The Kind of Problem a City Is”.)

Death and Life is an eloquent and rigorous primer of the Jacobs way. And if you’re like me, you’ll return to Death and Life again and again, as a reminder to pay attention to what you are seeing… Continue reading

Preservation Can Begin at Admirals Row

MAS — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:54:10 +0000

After nearly five years of review, the federal government has finally transferred the six-acre Admirals Row site to the City of New York, which will turn it over to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for redevelopment. The Navy Yard’s development will include a grocery store, retail and an industrial building. Their plans also include the preservation of two of the most significant historic buildings on the site, the Timber Shed and Quarters B.

MAS has been a strong advocate for the preservation of these historic buildings, and for five years has been raising serious concerns over the federal government’s failure to stabilize the buildings, and for leaving them open to the elements. Fortunately, now that the site is owned by the city, the Navy Yard has provided access to structural engineers from Robert Silman Associates so the two structures can be immediately stabilized.

Vin Cipolla said, “MAS strongly supports the Navy Yard’s development because it will provide the community a sorely needed affordable grocery store and jobs. We commend the Navy Yard for their commitment to preserve two of the most significant buildings on the site. The preservation of those buildings will significantly improve the urban design and place-making aspects of the development. The beauty and uniqueness of the buildings will help make this development a Brooklyn amenity and destination.”

Click here to read MAS testimony to the City Council in support of the Navy Yard’s proposal.

Tour Olympic London with MAS Before the Public Arrives

MAS — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:08:18 +0000

Join MAS on our first ever MAS VIP Livable City Tour–an extraordinary opportunity to see Olympic London before the public arrives!

Olympic London, the exciting program’s inaugural trip, will take place from March 28 through April 1, 2012. This first come, first serve exclusive London visit is limited to a very small group of up to 12 guests, and will provide a one-time opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at Olympic Legacy Park, as well as several of London’s other key revitalization and preservation sites. The group will be accompanied by officials and planners deeply involved in these important city-building initiatives.A detailed itinerary for the London visit is now available. The cost of the trip is $5,500 per person, based on double occupancy (single supplement available), which includes a $1,000 tax-deductible donation to MAS. Airfare is not included. To book your trip with us, or if you have questions, please contact Katie Schwartz at 212-935-3960 x1221 or kschwartz@mas.org. To reserve a spot on the trip, please respond by Wednesday, February 8.

Future MAS VIP Livable City Tours will offer other unusual and intellectually stimulating international travel experiences to get an in depth understanding of some of the world’s greatest cities. Each of our itineraries will focus on aspects of city life that are relevant to our work at MAS, showing us how other cities are dealing with their own preservation, planning and design challenges.

Verdict In: Borough Hall District Upheld

MAS — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:39:48 +0000

On Tuesday, the City Council Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting And Maritime Uses affirmed the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s designation of the Borough Hall Skyscraper District. MAS testified in December in support of upholding the Downtown Brooklyn historic district, which we originally proposed in conjunction with the Brooklyn Heights Association and the New York Landmarks Conservancy in 2006. MAS congratulates all of our colleagues who were involved in this important decision, and offers special thanks to Councilmember Stephen Levin for being our advocate throughout this process, to the Historic Districts Council and to Brad Lander, who chairs the Landmarks Committee. The district still needs final approval by the full Council and preservation champion, Speaker Christine Quinn, but we are one step closer to victory.

Read our testimony from December’s hearing. Read the New York Times article about this decision.

Cook+Fox and Terrapin Selected to Prepare Green Manual

MAS — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:34:52 +0000

There’s a strong perception that greening historic buildings is made arduous by Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) regulations. To help counter that notion, MAS and the LPC are producing a manual, “Greening New York City’s Landmarks: A Guide for Property Owners.” MAS has selected Cook+Fox and Terrapin Bright Green to develop the guide, which will provide straightforward action steps on how to improve the energy efficiency and sustainability of the city’s landmark buildings while meeting preservation standards. The manual should be completed by the fall of 2012, and will be published digitally and available free of cost on the MAS and the LPC websites.

Terrapin and Cook+Fox have extensive experience in greening historic buildings, from greening the White House under the Clinton administration, working with the National Trust on their first LEED certified project at President Lincoln’s summer cottage and the Historic Front Street project at the South Street Seaport. Chris Garvin, a Partner at Terrapin and Senior Associate at Cook+Fox said, “The partners and staff of Terrapin Bright Green and Cook+Fox Architects are pleased to have been selected to develop this important Guide to greening NYC landmarks. It is a project that marries two guiding principles of our firms – environmental sustainability and cultural preservation – and we are looking forward to working with the MAS and LPC to produce a insightful and useful guide for all New Yorkers.”

While the manual will be primarily targeted to the owners of New York City’s small landmarked buildings, it will also be useful to owners of small older buildings across the city. “Roughly 55 percent of New York’s building stock is more than 70 years old, and any serious efforts to build a more sustainable city must include solutions for making these older buildings more efficient” said MAS President Vin Cipolla. “With this guide, we will provide clear guidance to property owners and the preservation community on how historic buildings can be part of the solution to fighting climate change and making New York City more sustainable. This isn’t just good for the environment, it’s good for the bottom line too because it can lead to savings in energy costs.”

Along with the energy retrofit of the Henry Street Settlement headquarters, the manual is part of MAS’s ongoing Preservation and Climate Change Campaign, which is focused on integrating preservation into New York City’s climate change, green building and sustainability agendas. Completion of the manual will fulfill one of the milestones of the updated PlaNYC 2030.

MAS is grateful for generous funding for this manual from the New York Community Trust, The J.M. Kaplan Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Elizabeth and Robert Jeffe Preservation Fund.

MAS President on Governor Cuomo’s State of the State

MAS — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:25:35 +0000

In response to Governor Cuomo’s 2012 State of the State address last week, in which he announced a proposal to replace the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center with a complex in Queens, MAS President Vin Cipolla urges “What’s good for Manhattan must be good for Queens.” Vin’s op-ed on the State of the State for Metropolis follows below in its entirety.

What’s good for Manhattan must be good for Queens
For almost two decades, The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) has advocated for the transformation of the Farley Post Office into a new Penn Station to be called Moynihan Station. Governor Cuomo’s recent State of the State address suggests that 2012 could be the station’s moment.

The immediate story is, of course, the possible razing of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and its replacement, at the site of the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, by what the Governor describes as the nation’s largest convention center. Before moving ahead, however, we must make sure that what’s good for Manhattan is equally beneficial for Queens.

Getting rid of Javits is a great idea – but not in isolation. The key issue is what will replace it. If a reimagined Far West Side is to succeed, we need to develop nuanced and comprehensive strategies for urban design, transportation and how to engage the public in the planning process.

We also need to make sure that the new convention center doesn’t become another Javits or, worse yet, another Coliseum. New York City’s history of failed convention centers (the Coliseum stood for 44 years; Javits opened 26 years ago) proves that we need a convention facility with the spatial flexibility and community buy-in to thrive well into the 21st century.

Let’s start with transportation. With both a new convention center and a redeveloped Javits site on the horizon, New York urgently needs a transportation infrastructure that can support these mega-projects.

The gargantuan size of a modern convention center like the one proposed by the Governor dictates a comprehensive transportation upgrade. The 18-acre Javits site is larger than 13.5 football fields and gets more than three million visitors a year. The proposed Queens site would handle at least that number of people, if not considerably more. Numbers this large demand an expanded Kennedy Airport and extensions of the subway and bus lines serving Ozone Park.

While, on Manhattan’s Far West Side, some transportation improvements are already in progress, more are needed, with the perennially overcrowded Penn Station topping the list of challenges. In 1963, 200,000 people passed through its concourses daily; by 2008, usage had more than tripled to 640,000 – more than LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark Airports combined. A redeveloped Javits site necessitates replacing Penn Station with Moynihan Station, and soon.

Integrating a new convention center and a redeveloped Javits site into their respective neighborhoods is equally important. The best way to ensure these developments’ long-term viability is to , first, insist on a planning process that is fully transparent and public and, second, expose the plans to rigorous review, early and often. Community engagement is essential. A public planning process like the City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) would allow community boards to weigh in alongside policymakers and experts. Public forums to tease out urban design, sustainability, environmental effects and community issues would raise the odds of success even more.

The construction of a new convention center in Queens and the simultaneous redevelopment of the Far West Side could bring millions of new visitors – and millions of tax dollars – to New York City. Let’s make sure these projects benefit their host neighborhoods as much as they do the city as a whole. Our citizens deserve nothing less.

NYU’s “Core” Project Enters Public Review

MAS — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:39:54 +0000

MAS joined several hundred community residents last night for Community Board Two’s first official public review of NYU’s application to redevelop significant portions of their core campus in Greenwich Village. Huge attendance caused the meeting to relocate to a larger venue several blocks away; for nearly three hours, residents spoke about how the years of construction impacts, loss of public amenities and increased density will affect their neighborhood’s historic character and livability.

The Department of City Planning officially certified NYU’s plan as complete on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012. This certification marked the beginning of the City’s seven-month public review and approval process known as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). The Greenwich Village expansion is one part of NYU 2031: NYU in NYC, the University’s strategic plan to add 6 million square feet of campus space throughout the city over the next twenty years. If approved, NYU’s proposal would add approximately 2.5 million square feet of academic space to two residential superblocks: Silver Towers and Washington Square Village.

MAS has been actively involved in the discussion regarding NYU’s expansion plans beginning in 2010 as participants in Borough President Stringer’s Community Task Force on NYU Development. NYU’s application is now under 60 days of public review. For a full schedule of public hearings see Community Board 2’s website. To learn more about this development project see our NYU web page and read our comments on the Draft Scope of Work for an Environmental Impact Statement for the NYU Core submitted to the Department of City Planning in May 2011.

Upcoming Course: Researching the History of Buildings

Hazel Balaban — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:04:49 +0000

Have you ever wondered what that strange door in the hallway of your building was originally intended for? Or who lived there one hundred years ago? Wouldn’t you like to know who built your favorite buildings in New York City?

Join MAS in February for Researching the History of Buildings in New York City, where participants will learn how to find the answers to these questions and much more. Discover how to access the city’s records in-person and online in this small seminar limited to 30 people. The four-week-long course will be held once a week in February at MAS’s offices, and is led by historian and former Landmarks Commissioner Tony Robins.

Past participants have included architects, engineers, building owners, preservation advocates, lawyers, landmarks commissioners, and, once, even a New York City detective. Here are some comments from last year’s seminar:

“This fun class includes numerous research tips, a huge list of suggestions for information sources, and a field trip that shows you how to navigate the collections of several important archives and libraries.” - Philip Sutton, Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, New York Public Library

“I loved the subject and also taking a course in the MAS offices.”

“I thought the class was very good and that Tony Robins was an excellent teacher. Very knowledgeable and very experienced at what he does.”

This seminar is sure to sell-out. Register today.

2011: Accomplishments and the Road Ahead

Hazel Balaban — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 22:33:05 +0000

From the inclusion of historic preservation in PlaNYC 2.0 as a result of our Preservation and Climate Change Campaign, to the terrifically successful second annual MAS Summit for New York City, where we released Fashioning the Future: NYC’s Garment District as well as the second annual MAS Survey on Livability, 2011 was a remarkable year for MAS. Read more about the past twelve months at MAS in President Vin Cipolla’s end of year report.

Update on the Brooklyn Skyscraper District

MAS — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:00:35 +0000

On December 7, the City Council’s Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting and Maritime Uses held a public hearing on the designation of the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District. MAS, along with many preservation groups, including the Brooklyn Heights Association and the New York Landmarks Conservancy, testified in support of the historic district, stating:

“The City has made serious investments into the revitalization and rejuvenation of this part of Brooklyn, from the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning to the creation of Brooklyn Bridge Park. Preservation of the buildings in the Borough Hall Skyscraper District is an important part of those planning efforts and will help foster Brooklyn’s continued renaissance. MAS strongly believes that the buildings in the historic district merit protection under the Landmarks Law and that the LPC has correctly drawn the district boundaries, which has been borne out in the rigorous review of this district. We urge the City Council to uphold that agency’s designation and approve this district with the boundaries put forward by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.”

The subcommittee delayed their vote to a future meeting, so there is still time to email or call your Council Member, and the Chair and members of the subcommittee. There is some opposition to this district, so it’s important for the City Council Members to hear from supporters. Let them know that you believe that the district is worthy of historic district designation and that they should uphold the LPC’s boundaries.

What Does the Cornell/Technion Proposal Mean for Roosevelt Island?

Hazel Balaban — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:49:26 +0000

Last week, it was announced that the Cornell University-Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Consortium was chosen from seven applicants who this past summer responded to the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) Request for Proposals (RFP) for Applied Sciences NYC. The RFP called for a university or partnership to develop and operate an applied science campus in New York City in exchange for access to city-owned land on Roosevelt Island, as well $100 million in city capital for infrastructure upgrades. The Cornell/Technion proposal includes plans for an eleven-acre campus with more than two million square feet of space for two thousand students. The hope is that this investment of money, time and talent will breathe new life into the city’s economy as well as Roosevelt Island.

In 1971, the now defunct Urban Development Corporation (UDC) of New York State—a state agency charged with the economic development of New York—undertook the transformation of a patch of land between Manhattan and Queens which at that time was known as Welfare Island. The UDC renamed the island Roosevelt Island and with a master plan laid out by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, the corporation gradually began to transform the island into a residential community. In 1984, the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation of the State of New York was created to take responsibility for the development and operation of the island. The corporation assumed the role of the UDC as the lessee under a 99-year lease (expiring in 2068) from the City of New York.

In its mission statement, the goals of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation are to:

1) Promote, develop, and maintain the mixed-use residential community on Roosevelt Island.

2) Provide appropriate level of services which develop and maintain public facilities,open spaces, and commercial facilities.

3) Ensure good governance by compliance with applicable Federal, State, and City laws.

The plan for the island approved with subsequent modifications provides for the development of housing, retail and schools for a mixed income, handicap accessible, residential neighborhood. The plan also restricts automobile use on much of the island and provides for an innovative garbage compacting system that transports waste through underground tunnels to a collection station where it is compacted and sealed in containers. The development of the island was quietly a laboratory for urban experimentation.

If realized, the Cornell/Technion plan with more than two million new square feet of university space will once again transform the island. The details of the proposal have yet to emerge but the information that has been released include plans for a net zero energy campus. And, according to terms set forth by the city, the first phase of the permanent Cornell/ Technion campus on Roosevelt Island is to open no later than 2017. The development of the proposal is on an incredibly tight timeline, so the challenge will be for these universities, the city, and community stakeholders not only to think creatively—to re-imagine the island and the relationship of universities to the communities they’re situated in—but also to think incredibly quickly.

What comes of this collision of ideas and expediency will say a great deal about the future of this piece of land and perhaps if successful will become an economic development model for other cities.

Follow Up: “New York’s Next Great Waterfront Park” In the News

MAS — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:13:03 +0000

Last week’s release of the MAS report, New York’s Next Great Waterfront Park garnered a fair amount of media attention. A synthesis of the lively and insightful discussions that took place at our July 2011 charrette, the report was prepared in conjunction with noted New York landscape architect Barbara Wilks and her firm, W Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

Read the complete report online, or to download it click here.

Check out the press about New York’s Next Great Waterfront Park below:

New York Observer, Hope Floats! Municipal Art Society Revives Plans for East River Waterfront

Wall Street Journal, Park Plan Gives Added Access to East River

Curbed NY, East Waterfront Plan Bobs Along, Slowly Forward

DNAinfo, Municipal Art Society Offers Renovation Advice for Con Ed Pier

MAS would especially like to thank Council Member Daniel Garodnick, who helped to make New York’s Next Great Waterfront Park a great success. We look forward to working with all of the stakeholders to ensure that the Con Ed Pier truly becomes New York City’s next great park.