Public Space
Top Categories
Tonight: See the Blueprint for a New Upper West Side
Streets designed for safe, accessible, and equitable use. That is the vision of the "Blueprint for the Upper West Side: A Roadmap for Truly Livable Streets," to be unveiled tonight by the Upper West Side Streets Renaissance Campaign. The product of one year of community-driven planning, in consultation with urbanist legends Jan Gehl and Donald Shoup, the 51-page Blueprint [PDF] is an expansive neighborhood-wide plan that would employ many livable streets concepts already in use by NYC DOT.
November 13, 2008
Design Comp Winner Envisions Neighborhood Bike-Share for Red Hook
The Forum for Urban Design announced the winner of its Red Hook bicycle plan competition Monday night, awarding top honors to Brooklyn native Jonathan Rule. The competition sought out ideas to make transit-poor Red Hook the city's most bikeable neighborhood, asking entrants to lay out bike routes and design a bike parking "loft" for the Smith-9th Street subway station.
November 12, 2008
Designing NYC Streets for the 21st Century
Earlier this week Transportation Alternatives announced the winners of its "21st Century Street" design competition, selecting three entries from more than a hundred submissions re-imagining the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street in Brooklyn.
November 6, 2008
Off-Duty Cops Reported Driving on Pelham Bay Park Trails
A troubling reader tip from the Bronx:
October 31, 2008
New Duffy Square Adds Glass Crown Atop Broadway Boulevard
Last week saw the latest expansion of the public realm in Midtown, with the official unveiling of the long-awaited redesign of Duffy Square at Broadway and Seventh Avenue, the northern edge of the Times Square "bowtie."
October 20, 2008
Eyes on the Street: Hudson Greenway Link Still a Big Tease
From Streetsblogger Urbanis:
October 10, 2008
Public Picks Grand Army Plaza Design
The people have spoken, choosing a design for Grand Army Plaza that connects it to Prospect Park, taking Flatbush Avenue underground and making pedestrians the primary users of the space.
October 10, 2008
Jan Gehl Reflects on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf
"When I was a visiting professor at Berkeley in the 1980s, I used to come to Fisherman's Wharf and walk around," Danish urban designer Jan Gehl said Wednesday night, to more than 100 San Franciscans at the Pier 39 Theater near Fisherman's Wharf. "Now it's like deja vu; it's exactly like I remember it 25 years ago."
October 9, 2008
Pedestrians Shoved Aside as Brooklyn Judges Cling to Plaza Parking
The saga of the Brooklyn judges who just can't stand to part with their parking spots inside Columbus Park turned into a case of whack-a-mole last week. First, the judges finally agreed to stop parking in a pedestrian walkway, backing down from threats to sue the city in order to preserve that privilege. Under the compromise, however, a much bigger swath of the park has been turned over to the judges' parked vehicles, a supposedly temporary giveback while a new permanent configuration is implemented.
October 6, 2008
New MTA Grates Double as Seating, Bike Racks
Not to steal anyone's thunder, but the MTA has rolled out the second of three prototype grates designed to keep stormwater out of the subways while doubling as street furniture. The first design, though incorporating a bench, is more artful and less functional than the prototype shown above, which includes seating as well as bike racks. Fifteen of the bench/bike rack prototypes will be coming to Lower Manhattan, along West Broadway between Chambers and Leonard Streets, and on Varick Street between Leonard and Franklin.
October 1, 2008