The Municipal Art Society of New York

Toward a Sustainable Upper Bay: Islands, Bays, Channels & Canals
Wednesday, July 28, 6:00-9:00 p.m.

Join us for a scenic boat ride and lively commentary on the present and future of the Upper Bay of New York Harbor. We’ll get up-close views of Ellis, Liberty and Governors islands, take the Buttermilk Channel past Red Hook and visit assorted basins and canals. Along the way, we’ll learn about the Upper Bay’s changing environment, the preservation and conservation challenges facing its extraordinary National Parks and look to the future—including a waterfront public high school that will offer an education built upon New York City’s maritime experience. Continue Reading>>

The New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) is updating its Comprehensive Waterfront Plan and is looking for public input in creating a framework that will guide land use decisions along the city’s shoreline. DCP has committed itself to extensive public involvement to identify the goals and issues to be addressed by the Plan, and this Thursday, April 8, at 6:00 – 8:30 p.m., is the first public meeting in this year-long visioning process of public consultation.

The Plan has the potential to profoundly transform New York City’s waterfront, and MAS encourages waterfront enthusiasts and members of the public alike to take this opportunity to offer their input to help set the direction for the future of what is, perhaps, our city’s greatest natural resource.

The meeting will be held at: Murray Bergtraum High School, 411 Pearl Street, Manhattan [MAP], and in the coming months, borough-specific meetings will be held to identify opportunities for each waterfront neighborhood. If you are unable to attend the meeting, but would still like to submit your ideas and comments to DCP, click here to open an online form.

Tonight, in honor of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s historic voyage, we are heading up the river that bears his name. A limited number of tickets are still available ($75, $50 MAS members), but advanced sales are now closed. Please show up at Pier 83, at 42nd Street and 12th Avenue (MAP) to buy your tickets.

Please note: The Circle Line boat will sail on time at 6:00 p.m., rain or shine. To ensure that you are boarded in good time, we recommend that you arrive at Pier 83 (at 42nd St. & 12th Ave.) by 5:30 p.m. if you purchased tickets in advance — and earlier if you need to buy them on-site — as we cannot delay departure for late-comers.

Those who purchased your ticket/s online in advance, please remember to bring your e-mail receipt with you: it is your ticket. If you reserved over the phone, please check-in at the desk (look for the yellow balloons) to obtain your ticket before trying to board.

You may bring a picnic supper with you, though food and beverages, including wine and beer, are available for purchase on board. Guests are not permitted to bring their own alcoholic beverages.

Please call Katie Skelly on 212 935 2075 before 4:00 p.m. today (July 29) with any questions.

Directly across the East River from the United Nations, Gantry Plaza State Park has stunning views of Manhattan, but it was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter for its main attraction: restored gantry cranes. Now dramatic industrial sculptures, these gantries were the nexus for providing goods and supplies to Long Island via the Long Island Rail Road tracks that used to run to the water’s edge. Built in the 1920s, the gantries hoisted rail cars from floats and barges onto land and vice versa, opening up the Long Island waterfront for industrial activity and inland for residential communities.

But the gantries are just one feature that pays homage to the Long Island City waterfront’s industrial past, which is quickly giving way to residential buildings. The Long Island City waterfront was originally a site for tanneries and other factories, including the Pepsico bottling plant in Hunters Point. The iconic ruby-red Pepsi Cola sign was dismantled late in 2008 to be re-situated further north in the newest section of Gantry Plaza State Park, which just opened July 1, 2009. Continue Reading>>

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.

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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.

Yesterday MAS testified before the City Planning Commission, voicing strong support for city’s goals for Coney Island and suggesting improvements to the rezoning plan in the areas of urban design, zoning and preservation. During the past several months MAS has worked with the staff of the Brooklyn Office of City Planning, amusement experts, and with Coney Island  community and cultural groups to identify the best ways to restore Coney Island to its position as a world-class amusement destination. Read our testimony in full here or our press release here. Continue Reading>>

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Ahead of the panel discussion City of Art: New York’s Hidden Treasures Revealed which MAS is hosting on Thursday, April 16, at 6:30 pm., leading environmental artist George Trakas talked to Elizabeth Werbe of MAS about his recent public art work in New York City.

Widely acclaimed for numerous projects in North America and Western Europe over the past thirty years, Trakas has recently completed a major piece of work for the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn. Commissioned by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art program, his creation makes approximately 1,000 feet of shoreline accessible to the public. Continue Reading>>

In light of the City’s plan to rezone 25 blocks of the Gowanus Canal corridor, MAS is conducting an investigation of the area’s historic resources, including the canal itself. Although the Gowanus Canal is sometimes better known for the pollutants from decades of heavy manufacturing and industrial use which earned it the nickname “Lavender Lake,” the canal should also be considered a historic industrial landscape. In fact, the waterway has been officially recognized as eligible for inclusion on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.  MAS recently completed a historic resources survey of the Gowanus Canal rezoning area, and will expand the study to include the other blocks along the canal and adjacent to the rezoning area that may be affected by the rezoning. The survey has already identified several unprotected potential historic buildings and structures, many of which are featured in this slide show.  Continue Reading>>

On Tuesday, February 17th, the LPC took the first step in the landmark designation process when it “calendared” five new items. The collection of potential new landmarks includes the Ridgewood Theater in Queens, the Brooklyn Union Gas Company Building, the West-Park Presbyterian Church, the Fort Washington Presbyterian Church and the proposed Audubon Park Historic District in Manhattan.
Check out the slide show above to learn more about the five new proposed landmarks.

Please join us for the final ImagineConey program this Tuesday, February 17, at 6.30 p.m. at MAS to see presentations of submissions to the ImagineConey initiative by members of the public and design professionals. Presenters will include Frederick Schwartz, Philip Tusa, Henry Jones and others. MAS staff will also present the results of the design workshop (charrette) held last November in which an international team of designers, economists and creative producers participated. The event is free, but reservations are strongly recommended. Click here to RSVP or call 212-935-2075.

Imagining Coney: Bold Ideas, Technicolor Dreams, and Fanciful Concepts
Tuesday, February 17, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., at the Municipal Art Society
A review of over 350 ideas submitted from around the world by the general public and professional designers.

What is the role of the amusement business in a recession-era urban economy? Does Coney Island have the potential to become a true economic engine for New York?

Please join us at MAS for a panel discussion of these issues tonight at 6:30 p.m. Panelists will include: former Disney executive and Managing Director at real estate advisory firm RCLCo David Malmuth; former Six Flags executive and Senior Vice-President of PARC Management Dan Aylward; President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) Seth Pinsky; and owner of Astroland Amusement Park Carol Albert.

Wednesday, February 11, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
A Serious Business: The Future of Amusements in an Urban Economy
A panel of experts discuss the future of urban amusement parks in New York’s recession-era economy. $15, $12 MAS members.To purchase tickets, click here or call 212-935-2075.

Visit the MAS exhibit ImagineConey: Bold Ideas for the Future of Coney Island, now on display through Wednesday, March 11. Gallery hours>>.

Together with tour leader Carter Craft and 12 others hearty souls, the author braved the subfreezing temperatures last Saturday to celebrate the rich waterfront history and the new cultural attractions floating to the surface in Lower Manhattan. Sites along the way included the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, the Battery Maritime Building (the gateway to Governor’s Island), Pier 11/Wall St. Ferry Terminal, South Street Seaport, and Peck Slip.

What defines a neighborhood? What underlying characteristics flavor that definition even as the decades pass?

The current structures on the Southern Coast of Manhattan represent the “front porch” of the island today, as they have done for centuries. These buildings serve little function for most Manhattanites, who visit as infrequently now as they might have for centuries. Even the East River is transitory in its own way; flowing north and south alternately with the tides. Continue Reading>>

Last night, the Municipal Art Society’s new exhibit ImagineConey: Bold Ideas for Coney Island opened with a party at our Urban Center Galleries, featuring Miss Cyclone as the evening’s MC, with sword-swallower The Great Fredini and Steve the Strongman providing sideshow entertainment that was both fascinating and gruesome at the same time.

Check out the slideshow above for photos of the opening, and visit our Facebook page to watch two short videos of the Great Fredini performing. We also took the opportunity to “live-tweet” this captivating event on Twitter, so please check out our tweets after the jump to learn about some of the more intriguing points of the evening. Continue Reading>>