Details:
When: Thursday, June 13, 9:00 PM – Midnight
Where: Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse in Grand Central Terminal
Open Bar 
Festive Attire

The Urbanists are early and mid-career professional members of MAS who are passionate about engaging with New York City. They are committed to improving the quality of the city’s built environment, preserving the best of its architectural and cultural past, and educating themselves and others about the issues that will shape the city’s future.   

Host Committee (in formation): Afiya Bediako, Jason Berkenfeld, Gabriella Cipolla, Michaela Dowd, Yiyi Huang, Zoltan Kovacs, Matthew McCahill, Lindsey Owen, Emily Sottile, Peter Weiss, Jessica Wilsey

In 2013, the MAS Urbanist program is sponsored by: 

Details:
Design Challenge for a New Penn Station and the Next Madison Square Garden
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Doors open at 8:30 AM
Program from 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM
TimesCenter (242 W. 41st Street)

The four firms, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, SHoP Architects and SOM, were selected by MAS because of their wide ranging experience on extraordinarily complicated urban sites.

2013 presents New York City with a truly unique opportunity and together we need to seize this moment. Madison Square Garden’s 50-year special permit to operate an arena on its current site has expired. In December 2012, Madison Square Garden filed an application to continue to operate an arena on this site in perpetuity and that request is now going through the City’s land use review process with a final decision by the City Council in late June or early July.

The problem is that MSG happens to sit on top of the busiest train station in North America and constrains its ability to serve over half a million people every day.

MAS alongside the Regional Plan Association and a growing coalition of individuals and organizations – the Alliance for a New Penn Station – have called for restricting that permit to 10 years in order to develop a plan to move MSG and build the train station New York deserves.

City Planning Commission is recommending restricting the permit to 15 years which is an important step forward.

So, what might the future of MSG and Penn Station look like?

Join us on May 29 at 9:00 AM to hear what some of our city’s greatest architects think.

New York City deserves a world-class train station and a truly dynamic arena, and now is the time to work to make it happen.

Toronto and New York City share many defining characteristics. Both are financial centers, immigrant ‘gate-way’ cities, with strong post-secondary education sectors, cultural and design industries. And both cities are challenged by aging and/or inadequate hard infrastructure, affordability issues, and jurisdictional challenges coupled with limited locally-controlled revenue sources.

A month later on June 18 and 19, CityAge will host The Global Metropolis, at the Skirball Center at NYU, where MAS President Vin Cipolla will discuss approaches to urban resilience, with MAS Board Member Vicki Been, who will moderate the session. CityAge hosts events in a number of cities and archives sessions here: http://www.cityage.tv/.

Starting off the day with an opening panel on Defining Resilience and Building Back Green, training participants heard from an architect, botanist, journalist, and landscape architects on various techniques and opportunities for creating a more resilient New York through the implementation of natural infrastructure and building upon existing social networks.  Following the panel, Manhattan Borough President, Scott Stringer welcomed the participants with an engaging address about the power of community boards and how to approach challenges in your community.

With a wide range of workshops to choose from, participants were able to develop multi-faceted tools to improve their communities.  Courses included: Advocating for Parks and Open Space, Navigating the Public Review Process: ULURP and Environmental Review, Zoning 101, Community-Based Energy Efficiency, Creating and Preserving Affordable Housing, and many more!  This year’s training also included a new resilience-building track with courses in: Funding the Resilience Process, Assessing Neighborhood Strengths and Addressing Vulnerabilities, and Strategies for Building Social Resilience and Cohesion.  Materials from the workshops are available here.

The MAS Livable Neighborhoods training will continue to provide community activists with the knowledge they need to effectively participate in decisions that impact the livability of their neighborhoods. Since Livable Neighborhoods started in 2006, we’ve provided hands-on training to over 1000 New Yorkers (including over one third of the city’s 59 community boards).

To learn more about Livable Neighborhoods, and our upcoming training in the fall, visit www.mas.org/lnp.

MAS has advocated for public realm improvements first with The Next 100 design challenge, which enlisted three prestigious firms – Foster + Partners, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), and WXY—to  create a vision for the future East Midtown’s public areas, then by issuing a report—East Midtown: A Bold Vision for the Future—released earlier this year. The report emphasized the importance of  improving East Midtown’s entire public realm network, in particular congested sidewalks, rather than relying on the piecemeal improvements that would come online as new buildings are built as the City’s proposal suggests. This is particularly important as the City’s goal is to encourage the development of taller, more modern office buildings, which will bring in more pedestrian traffic, further crowding Midtown streets and subways.

We’re appreciative that the City now agrees that this work is essential to creating an improved Midtown but the zoning proposal in its current form still fails to address too many critical issues.

MAS testified before the Task Force, acknowledging City Planning for working to address the public realm concerns, and thanking the Community Boards for their important work. MAS along with many others made clear in our testimony that infrastructure investments is needed before ANY new development occurs, a mix of uses is essential to creating a more desirable 24/7 neighborhood and new development must be organized around protecting some of the most iconic buildings anywhere in the world.  MAS also urged the City to immediately landmark East Midtown’s significant structures.

Political figures such as City Council Members Dan Garodnick, Jessica Lappin, Gale Brewer and State Senators Liz Krueger and Brad Hoylman in addition to staff from Congresswoman Maloney’s office and Manhattan Borough President candidate Julie Menin were present to voice their concerns. Many suggested that the City slow the process down in order to perform a more rigorous analysis as the rezoning proposal will affect the city for generations.

MAS will continue to demand a better Midtown as the City’s rezoning proposal continues through the public review process in order to ensure that the future of Midtown includes improved infrastructure, a reinvigorated public realm, and the protection of critical buildings alongside the highest quality new development.

Please continue to check mas.org for future updates.

The SIRR team is now in the process of synthesizing the materials collected from the workshops, to incorporate into its report to be released in May 2013. The report is expected to provide recommendations for implementing City departments and agencies, to guide the city’s rebuilding efforts and build its resilience.  The SIRR team has recently released a new website which can be found here, and also includes a page to submit additional comments.

With each table of workshop participants, facilitators were tasked to discuss what valuable assets in each community should be preserved, and to identify the vulnerabilities that need to be protected.  While ideas varied between neighborhoods, the workshops overwhelmingly demonstrated the personal resilience of community residents and neighbors before, during, and after the storm, and recognized those neighborhood vulnerabilities, many of which pre-existed the storm and were exacerbated by Sandy.

As experts on their communities, residents brought many great ideas to the table – from implementing a car-share program with pick-up and drop-off locations for commuters on the Queensboro Bridge, to creating a Home Resiliency Audit, to designing a central community Hub to provide shelter, information and supplies when any kind of sudden weather disaster strikes, or to developing recreational and economic opportunities along the boardwalk in the Rockaway’s where, “if you build the beach back the community follows.”

Recognizing resilience is more than just protecting against water: residents view the rebuilding process as an opportunity to address the economic, social, environmental and cultural concerns that have challenged their neighborhoods long before Sandy hit.  The storm brought some new challenges, such as damaged infrastructure, flooding in homes and businesses, and health concerns related to mold and stormwater runoff.  But primarily, the storm exacerbated pre-existing problems in neighborhoods that were facing a myriad of challenges for years, if not decades.

In the Rockaways, where isolation and lack of transportation has weakened their economic base, or in those neighborhoods in Brooklyn where their health and safety is threatened by the constantly flooding Gowanus Canal Superfund site, and throughout the city where public housing and low-income populations are housed in Zone-A flooding areas, these pre-existing vulnerabilities need to be addressed in order to provide the resilience needed to adapt quickly to future disruptive events.  As one Staten Island resident stated, “We should have a good sense of who is living in each neighborhood and what their needs are.”

The storm is an opportunity for New York to evaluate its assets and address its vulnerabilities to ensure the City as a whole can build economic, cultural, social, and environmental resilience.  Acknowledging the importance of continued engagement with communities in the resilience building process, MAS is committed to continuing to work with communities in both the impacted neighborhoods and throughout the New York City to help build a Livable and Resilient City for all New Yorkers.

Through continued coordination at the MASNYC Resilience Roundtable, community capacity building at the MAS Spring Livable Neighborhoods Training, and ongoing research and outreach into the City’s resilience efforts, MAS will work to develop a Resilience Framework that will challenge the next administration to ensure the resilience agenda lives on.

MAS and We Stay/Nos Quedamos are now accepting nominations for the 2013 Yolanda Garcia Community Planner Award. This award, which acknowledges the hard-working leaders of grassroots, community-based, participatory planning, was created to commemorate Yolanda Garcia, an extraordinary community activist in the South Bronx. Under Ms. Garcia’s leadership, the residents of Melrose challenged the city, created an alternative to an urban renewal plan, and transformed a neighborhood. The organization created by Ms. Garcia, We Stay/Nos Quedamos, is bringing that community’s vision to life through sustainable planning, design, construction, and programming.

To nominate a community planner from your neighborhood, go here. Nominations will be accepted until May 31, 2013. The winner will be celebrated at the 2013 MAS Summit for New York City this fall.

Jane’s Walk honors the legacy and ideas of urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs who championed the interests of local residents at a time when scale models and grand visions of the future removed designers from the experience of the city by foot.

With a growing number of communities participating in this year’s walk—90 cities and counting—it is beyond doubt that people care deeply about their own communities and want to be involved as stewards of their transformation. Imagine over 25,000 artists, foodies, writers, activists, history buffs and people from all walks of life, taking to the streets in 19 countries to engage in frank discussion about everything from the cracks in the sidewalks to watershed management, from housing issues for immigrants to LGBT rights. The experience is both a celebration and a critique: an opportunity to speak openly with those willing to listen about real priorities in civic development, and a moment for grassroots urbanism that is filled with genuine, personal accounts of how public space is actually used.

Anyone can attend a Jane’s Walk, as all the tours are free of charge and open to every side of an issue. For a complete list of New York City’s 100+ free Jane’s Walks go to: www.mas.org/janeswalk.

Be part of the action this weekend!  Tweet: @masnyc and #janeswalknyc.

Calendaring is the first step in the formal designation process and would serve as interim protection for these buildings.  We noted that a building already  under consideration by the Commission had already had its façade altered so it is clear that the city should act quickly to avoid unnecessary destruction going forward.

The City has made minor modifications to their plan first announced last summer. One modification would require new buildings to outperform the city’s current energy conservation codes. While MAS commends this revision, a principle proposed in the MAS report: “East Midtown: A Bold Vision for the Future,” released in February, the City’s overall strategy continues to ignore the many factors that need to be in place in order to ensure the future success of this crucial business district.

MAS believes the City’s strategy should not be so narrowly focused on the development of Class A office space. Increasing density around a major transit hub is a good development strategy; however other elements such as infrastructure and public realm improvements must be made to ensure the neighborhood, already one of the densest in the city, does not become overwhelmed by the onset of development.

Esteemed architect Robert A.M. Stern eloquently describes what it means to properly plan for density in a recent New York Time’s article, stating that “… the advantages of density can go only so far without the infrastructure to support it. And the appropriateness of tall buildings is a question of where and when, and what they contribute to the public realm.”

As a city famous for its lively street life and unique public realm, this issue cannot be ignored. MAS will continue to advocate for a better Midtown in the coming months. Please continue to check mas.org for future updates.

This signature event of the New Museum’s Ideas City Festival will take place on Friday, May 3rd at 7:00 PM. Pitching the City will bring you five fresh ideas that use New York’s untapped capital—the theme of this year’s festival—in inventive ways.

At the end of the presentations then YOU, the audience, will vote to select your favorite urban innovation.

Details:
Pitching the City
St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral
Corner of Mott and Prince Streets
Friday, May 3 at 7:00 PM
FREE but RSVP required

Livable Neighborhoods is a semi-annual event that brings together a diverse group of participants – community board members, community based organizations, community activists, students and concerned citizens – to learn from experts with practical experience in city planning, economic development, zoning and more. Instructors include city officials, non-profit leaders, and experienced community activists.

Among the thirteen sessions offered as part of Livable Neighborhoods include Zoning 101, Historic Preservation and Preserving Cultural Assets, Community-Based Energy Efficiency and Creating and Preserving Affordable Housing. In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, the spring 2013 session of Livable Neighborhoods will also feature a new resilience track – Beginning with the opening panel: Defining Resilience and Building Back Green, and followed by three resilience-focused training courses: Where’s the Money? Funding the Resilience Process, Assessing Neighborhood Strengths and Addressing Vulnerabilities, and Strategies for Building Social Resilience and Cohesion.

Livable Neighborhoods, generously sponsored by the Altman Foundation, is aimed at filling an information gap for new community board representatives looking to expand their knowledge base, in addition to providing community activists with the knowledge they need to effectively participate in decisions that impact the livability of their neighborhoods.

For more information on Livable Neighborhoods and to register for the event on May 11, at Pratt Manhattan, visit http://mas.org/programs/livable-neighborhoods/.

The pitch sessions will take place inside the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, where the creative minds behind the Low Line, + Pool, the New Lab at Brooklyn Navy Yard, Reinvent Payphones: NYFi, and the IRT Powerhouse Reimagined will present their inspired visions before an esteemed jury of experts. Each pitch will be followed by several minutes of questions and feedback from the jury. At the end, YOU and the rest of the audience will vote to choose your favorite idea.  Read more about the pitches here.

The winner will receive editorial assistance in launching a campaign, as well as the opportunity to present their proposal at the annual MAS Summit for New York City in October. They will also be given exposure and media coverage from MAS and on Architizer and their affiliated social media networks.

St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral
Corner of Mott and Prince Streets
Friday, May 3 at 7:00 PM
FREE but RSVP required

Thank you to our Lead Sponsor:

MAS is working with our colleagues at the RPA and many others to insist that the Garden’s life on top of Penn Station be limited to 10 more years. This 10-year period gives us all the time to develop a real and workable plan to envision both a world-class train station and a world-class arena.

Vin Cipolla, president, MAS

Good morning. I’m Vin Cipolla, President of the Municipal Art Society of New York.

“The final defeat for Pennsylvania Station was handed down by the City Planning Commission…”

So begins an extraordinary article from May 5th, 1963 in the NY Times written by Ada Louise Huxtable.

Ms. Huxtable goes on to write that:

“The joker here, and it is a terrifying one, is that the City Planning Commission was unable to judge a case like Penn Station on the proper and genuine considerations involved.”

Thankfully, New York City and this Commission has a remarkable opportunity to help correct an extraordinary mistake…Read More

Echoing Vin’s testimony were many prominent New Yorkers who stood up to testify on behalf of Penn Station, including Elizabeth Belfer (MAS Board Member), Rick Bell (Executive Director, AIA), Vishaan Chakrabarti (Partner, SHoP Architects), Hugh Hardy (MAS Board Member), Richard Kielar (President, Arts Producer Plus), Janet Ross (MAS Board Member), and Adi Shamir (Designer, Architectural Historian & former Director, Van Alen Institute).

Some of the submitted testimony can be found on our website here.