“I’ve always been passionate about letting many people know that live events are awesome. Whether that’s circuses or magic shows or immersive theater like “Sleep No More,” or proper Broadway old-time musicals, I think it’s important to not just TiVo everything that you want to watch—to really make an effort to get dressed up and to go see a show and watch it happen right in front of you. It’s good to get off your butt sometimes and support creativity, and no one does it better than New York.”

The vertical city is the subject and celebration of Stewart Mader’s photo-blog Elevator View. The site features dozens of images of New York’s skyline taken amidst the skyline. The resulting perspective is simultaneously grand and intimate.

Photographed from the 24th floor of 1065 Avenue of the Americas (Bryant Park Corporation).

Now, in Year 11 of Ms. Burden’s likely 12-year tenure, she is pushing through her final priorities, which could affect the way New Yorkers live, work and play well into the 21st century and long after she and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg have left office. Among those current efforts are plans to rezone West Harlem in Manhattan, Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn and a key stretch of Fordham Road in the Bronx. The most sweeping final act may be the redevelopment of millions of square feet of office space along Park Avenue and surrounding Grand Central Terminal that proponents say is antiquated.

Burden started her career working for pioneering urbanist William H.(Holly) Whyte, whose seminal studies of human behavior in urban settings still guide planners more than 40 years after he began observing and documenting activity in public spaces.

Vishaan Chakrabarti who opened the conference with the statement, “Cities can cure many of the world’s ills” closed the session by explaining how and why. He said major private investment needed to be paired with greater public flexibility and more investment at the federal level. He added that a more nimble public process (that’s you, ULURP) needed to be figured out. “We’re taking too long to build these kind of projects,” he said. But then he zeroed in on the major plus of the megaprojects. “They can address the alarming rate of suburbanization,” he said. “The only way to mitigate that is far denser urbanization with transportation.”

Soho. Nolita. Dumbo. NoMad? Branding the last unnamed neighborhood in Manhattan.

Photographed from the 18th floor of 80 Fifth Avenue (Dailymotion).

Photographed from the 18th floor of 80 Fifth Avenue (Dailymotion).

Photographed from the 14th floor of 545 West 25th Street (The Glass Houses at Chelsea Arts Tower).

Photographed from the 18th floor of 80 Fifth Avenue (Dailymotion).

Photographed from the 7th floor of 4 Columbus Circle (Steelcase WorkLife Center).