While the City’s Economic Development Corporation is working to create a great summer season in Coney Island by opening a new amusement area and bringing in 23 new rides, one developer announced plans to demolish the oldest historic buildings in the heart of the amusement area this summer. The developer, Thor Equities, plans to replace these historic buildings with temporary shacks for fast food.

On the chopping block are the Grashorn building, built in the 1880s; Henderson’s Music Hall, built c. 1899, where Al Jolson and the Marx Brothers performed; the Shore Hotel, dating from 1903 and Coney Island’s only remaining small-scale hotel; and the Bank of Coney Island, constructed in 1923 in the Classical Revival style and intended to show the strength of the Coney Island business community. Continue Reading>>

New York City’s Midtown Garment District presents a host of planning, economic development and preservation issues as the district has undergone significant change over the last four decades.

To chart a course for the future, the Design Trust for Public Space, with its partner, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, has launched Made in Midtown, a project that will document how New York’s fashion industry works today and how it could be the catalyst for future improvements in the Garment District.

The Design Trust’s findings, including specific research on international fashion centers provided by The Municipal Art Society, will show how New York’s fashion industry functions as an interconnected ecosystem that is integral to our city’s economy, identity, and sense of place. The Design Trust will launch the project website, madeinmidtown.org, with a day-long event open to the public on June 3 at the Port Authority Pop-Up Space, at Eighth Avenue at 41st Street. Following the launch, the Design Trust and MAS have organized public programming throughout June to publicize the findings and to guide this issue into a public discussion. Continue Reading>>

To mark National Train Day — this Saturday, May 8 — MAS spoke with renowned rail reporter and train enthusiast Don Philips about what’s happening with America’s railroads. From foreign competition for contracts for increasingly popular and lucrative commuter rail lines, to some major top-down changes at Amtrak, to Warren Buffett’s quiet, but major, investment in freight rail, Don told us that right now may well be the most pivotal period in America’s railroads for decades.

And, to learn what’s happening at Moynihan Station — New York City’s most important development project — join architectural historian Matt Postal this Saturday, May 8, at 11:00 a.m., for a tour of Moynihan Station and the Far West Side. Tickets are $15, $10 MAS members. No reservations necessary. Meet at the N.W. corner of Sixth Ave. and 30th St. MAP.

To learn about MAS advocacy on Moynihan Station, visit MAS.org/new-penn-station. More MAS podcasts are available at MAS.org/audio or on our iTunes page.

Innovative public servants and savvy transportation and public space advocates are working to transform urban streets into “Complete Streets”, in which the street is shared equitably between all users — pedestrians, cyclists, bus passengers, motorists and truck drivers.

Last Thursday, at Scandinavia House, MAS hosted a fascinating program on the city streets of today and tomorrow. Focused on the key challenges to, and best practices in, contemporary street design, and highlighting examples from the Netherlands, Chicago and New York City, Paul Steely-White of Transportation Alternatives moderated an expert panel including: Gary Toth of Projects for Public Spaces (PPS); Andrew Wiley-Schwartz, assistant commissioner of NYC DOT, Nicole LaRusso of ADNY; and Janet Attarian of Chicago DOT.

Click on the player above to listen to a summary of the program or, to download it to your hand-held device, click here to open-up the MAS iTunes page.

Learn more about MAS’ work on streetscapes in New York City at MAS.org/publicpolicy, and to listen to more MAS podcasts, visit MAS.org/audio.

MAS President Vin Cipolla will be the featured speaker at Citizens Union’s second annual Spring for Reform event, taking place on May 12. The event will honor Jonathan Butler and Eric Demby, co-founders of Brooklyn Flea, for their creativity in building such a successful forum for exchange that are strengthening New Yorkers’ spirit of community.

Cipolla said his remarks will focus on the importance of public space in New York and around the nation, and how endeavors like Brooklyn Flea have the power to galvanize communities and transform relationships.

“I am very pleased to join Citizens Union at this wonderful event, both to pay tribute to the co-founders of Brooklyn Flea and to talk about why public space plays such a significant role in civic life and livability,” he said. Continue Reading>>

The 2010 MAS Annual Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 23, when the MAS Annual Awards will be made. Any person, place, organization, or momentous event that has made an exceptional contribution to the life of New York City is eligible for an MAS Annual Award, and we are currently accepting nominations from MAS members and friends through Friday, May 14.

To submit a nomination, click here to fill in the online nomination form. For your nomination to be considered, you must include your full name, email address, the official name of the organization, place, event or person you are nominating, and an explanation of why you think it deserves an award. Continue Reading>>

Highlighting MAS’ upcoming June program and tour series on Manhattan’s Garment District and announcing our new initiative, Preservation and Climate Change, the May-June issue of the MAS newsletter is hitting mailboxes across the city right now.

To read or download the May-June newsletter, click here. MAS thanks the Liman Foundation for its ongoing support of our newsletter.

MAS members receive the newsletter six times annually as a benefit of membership. To join MAS, visit MAS.org/membership.

Last week, MAS President Vin Cipolla joined a host of committed New York City preservationists, including Paul Goldberger, Anthony C. Wood, and Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel in the landmark interior of the Four Seasons Restaurant to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the New York Landmarks Preservation Law. Enacted in 1965, with support from MAS, the law ensured that the historic character of New York City’s built environment would be protected with the creation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The New Yorker architectural critic and Pulitzer Prize winning writer Paul Goldberger reflected on the immense beneficial impact the Landmarks Preservation Law has had on the built environment of New York City, comparing the respective ages of the landmark Four Seasons Hotel (52 years) to that of the original Penn Station (also 52), when it was torn down immediately prior to the creation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Mr. Goldberger said, “Preservation assures us that the city will have the resonance, the layers of time always being visible, that we need it to to be a civilized place.” But, he said, New York should not become “some grotesque version of Williamsburg on the Hudson.” Continue Reading>>

This Wednesday, April 28, the Moynihan Station Development Corporation (MSDC) is holding a hearing on the updated plans for Moynihan Station. They are seeking comments on two technical documents they released earlier this month, the Draft Amended General Project Plan and the Environmental Assessment.

The two documents reflect how similar the project is to what was approved in 2006, and provide details on the few key differences. The project has now been broken down into manageable phases that are achievable (described below), and Amtrak is identified as the primary transportation tenant in the new station — something MAS and other civic groups have long advocated for.

Phase 1, which consists largely of improvements below ground, will begin this year and be completed in 2015. This phase is fully funded and will result in improved circulation and greater access to platforms. The most visible part of this work will be two new entries into the Farley Post Office building, at street level on Eighth Avenue. Continue Reading>>

Should streets be treated as places? How is the New York City Department of Transportation transforming our city streets? Will the entire city benefit? What are the possible economic benefits of this new holistic approach?

As streets across the United States are being changed to accommodate the needs of all users (pedestrians, bicyclists, bus riders, the old, the young, and car and truck drivers), this Thursday’s program, The Complete Street, will feature four exceptional presentations — including one from Janet Attarian, director of Streetscape & Sustainable Design Program, Chicago — on urban streets as they are and could be.

In Chicago, melding complete streets and ecological design has resulted in sustainable changes both practical and pleasing, such as permeable pavers and landscaped medians that reduce storm water run-off while offering visual pleasure (see image above). Here in New York, bicycle paths have opened and sections of Broadway have closed to create pedestrian plazas, an experiment that will become permanent. What are the best practices in contemporary streetscapes? What are the challenges? How can improvements be funded and maintained? How can civic momentum be maintained from one administration to the next? Join us for an engaging discussion of the city streets of today and tomorrow. Continue Reading>>