Meeting Minutes

Urban Design   

Monday, January 14, 2002

New York University

Bobst Library

70 Washington Square South, New York

John Ben Snow Dining Room

 

1. Introduction and Welcome

Bob Yaro opened the meeting and thanked our host, Arthur Fried of the Center for Excellence in New York City Governance of NYU. 

 

2. Announcements

The RPA Regional Assembly, Friday, April 26 was announced and the “Listening to the City” Conference will be held on Thursday, February 7 at South Street Seaport (brochures were handed out).

 

3. New York New Visions Presentation

  • Rick Bell began the New York New Visions PowerPoint presentation, which focused on both short-term assistance and long range planning.  Short-term goals include business retention and streetscape issues. Long range planning would be governed by seven guiding principles. These principles are the framework for a memorial process, transportation connections, preparing for a mixed-use future, recognizing downtown as part of a multi-center city, concentrating on east-west and north-south connections to adjacent neighborhoods, sustainability in redevelopment, and tax incentives to encourage development and investment in the area.   The New York New Visions report can be downloaded at www.newyorknewvisions.org. 

4. Urban Design
After this introductory presentation the focus was shifted toward urban design.  Mark Strauss and Mark Ginsberg presented some of the urban design work that appears in the New York New Visions report. Highlights of the presentation are as follows:

  • The area was formerly the 3rd largest retail center in the country it total sales.
  • Connections to Lower Manhattan are key and should be provided through the improvement of the Fulton/Broadway inter-modal connection point for all public transportation.
  • An inter-modal transit hub should be erected on the scale of and with architectural expression equivalent to Grand Central Station as the entrance into Lower Manhattan.
  • West Street should be revised to better integrate Battery Park City. It is a critical North-South connection.
  • 7 World Trade, which is currently being redesigned, should incorporate a pedestrian corridor to extend to Greenwich Street.
  • Broadway should be a pedestrian oriented main street to accommodate visitors to the area.
  • East/West corridors are Chambers Street, Fulton Street, and Wall/Rector Street; Vesey & Liberty streets offer opportunities for east west corridors.
  • Open space should be developed for 24/7 activity, including cultural activities. The whole area should be a mixed-use residential/educational/institutional/ cultural place, which supports this 24/7 idea.
  • Technology for performance is key in building for the future. High tech security systems, etc will play a huge role in the designs of future buildings.
  • Design excellence is of utmost importance in the planning process for the benefit of New York’s greatest asset, human capital. Attractive places with a variety of office spaces are key as is taking advantage of the 270-degree waterfront.

 

5. Beverly Willis from RDOT, a community group in lower Manhattan, spoke on supporting all proposals that put people first.  Currently Pace University and RDOT are researching what is necessary for the design of the new area. Highlighted points include:

  • Making the former site a hub and still preserving historical buildings
  • Sustainability is an essential element of new buildings and development
  • Using technology for the improvement of the design and process
  • Construction and the removal of materials should not disrupt life and work for the people of Downtown.

 

6. Open Discussion

After the presentations, there was a discussion regarding issues surrounding urban design.  General comments and main ideas brought up in the session are as follows:

  • Pedestrian circulation is of paramount importance in the rebuilding of the downtown streetscape.
  • Is there a way of structuring State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) in a way to give incentives for good design? Sustainability should exist during the construction process and in the end product.
  • Clarification and visualization of issues have been well illustrated by the New York New Vision publication as it provides for scale, open space, links to transportation, design and sustainability.
  • Is there really a need to replace the 15 million square feet of office space? How do you replace the office space in a way that a social/ environmental/ economic justice person would agree with? How and what do we rebuild and can that much new construction be sustained in regards to waster, energy, and water? And what is the impact of the reconstruction process itself?
  • Civic Amenities such as landmarks and historical destinations, streetscapes, and waterfront parks and recreation should be addressed. The question of the rising water levels was also raised in response to the general consensus of developing the waterfront.  The Center for Climate Research has proven that Manhattan is effected by global warming and rising sea level.
  • How does the memorial process begin?  There is no model besides Oklahoma City and that is on a tremendously smaller scale. The Oklahoma model was a task force of 350 people; if we did that in New York, it would have to be a task force of 35,000 people. Do we address the possibility of a design competition?
  • Economic development should be framed more broadly than building office space and creating jobs. Lower Manhattan should be sustained as a financial hub as well as a hub for retail, residential and historical industries. How can this area be attractive to businesses? How much office space we build is not as important as the question of how we configure it. Economic inequality was also addressed.
  • How much money will be available for redevelopment and who will decide how it is used? Who will set the priorities? There should be a finance committee of the Civic Alliance to address these issues.  
  • How does the New York New Visions report reach the community? Should hard copies of a summary of the report be dispersed to area businesses and citizens? How can the issues be accessible to everyone?
  • Should the need for office space in the future be a deciding factor in what is built now?
  • The regulatory process must be reformed not just to expedite the process, but to increase citizen oversight.
  • How will the streetscape be redeveloped? 32 miles of streets need to be restructured for pedestrian and mass transit use.

 

7. “Conversations with the City”

At the end of the meeting Arthur Fried of NYU and Carolyn Lukensmeyer of AmericaSpeaks presented information about the upcoming event on February 7 at the South Street Seaport. The conference will aim to get public participation into the process of the Civic Alliance and will serve as the first in a series of outreach components of the Civic Alliance’s work. It was also mentioned that due to a positive outlook for funding, the $25 fee for the conference will probably be waived for some, if not all, of the conference participants.

 

8. Recreation Bubble

Just before the end of the meeting it was moved that the Civic Alliance write a letter in support of the temporary Indoor Recreation Bubble on Site B in Lower Manahattan, bordered by West, Greenwich, Murray and Warren Streets. The community of Lower Manhattan was hit hard by the events of September 11 and as a result have no safe space for the local children to recreate. Funding has been secured for this project and Community Board One has passed a resolution to spearhead a campaign for the erection of this bubble.

 

The Civic Alliance moved unanimously to support the recreation bubble and to send a letter of support to the Michael Carey, president of the NYC Economic Development Corporation and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

 

9. The meeting adjourned at 10:35 PM

 

Attendance

 

Ruth Acker, Women's City Club

Richard Anderson, New York Building Congress

Jonathan Ball, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton

Deborah Beck, Real Estate Board New York (REBNY)

Rick Bell, American Institute of Architects

Barry Benepe, Fine Arts Federation of New York

Genie Birch, University of Pennsylvania

Joan Byron, PICCED

Marcia Bystryn, New York League of Conservation Voters

Colin Cathcart, Kiss & Cathcart

Vishaan Chakrabarti, Skidmore Owings & Merill

Rocky Chin, Chinatown Resident

Carol Clark

Ethan Cohen, City College Architectural Center

Tara Colton, Center for Excellence in NYC Governance

Andy Darrell, Environmental Defense

Susan Deutsch, Capital Initiative, Limited

Mary Dierick, Fine Arts Federation of New York

David Dyssegaard Kallick, Fiscal Policy Institute

Paul Elston, NY League of Conservation Voters

Paul Epstein, Epstein & Fass Associates

Madeline Fletcher

RPA

Arthur Fried, Center for Excellence in New York City Governance

Margaret Fung, Asian American Legal Defense Fund and Education Fund

Jean Gardner, Parsons-Architecture

Roland Gebhardt

Mark Ginsberg, Curtis and Ginsberg Architects

Jill Gross, Hunter College

Ashok Gupta, Natural Resources Defense Council

Jayson Haedrich

Eva Handhardt, Municipal Art Society

Bonnie Harken, APA NY Metro Chapter

Jennifer Hoppa, Manhattan Borough President's Office

Sandy Hornick, NYC Department of City Planning

Tracey Hummer, Art in America

Ernie Hutton, Hutton Associates Inc

Amos Ilan, Ilan Consulting

Karen Kahn,Port Authority New York New Jersey

Richard Kaplan, RPA

Gail Karlsson, Citizens Network for Sustainable Development

Ellie King, Womens City Club

Drew Kiriziades, Manhattan Borough President's Office

Sue Labourie, Studio L'Image

Charles Lai, Asian American Federation of New York

Patricia Lancaster, Patricia Lancaster Associates

Rob Lane, RPA

 

Jennifer Lara, ICIS

Chris Lasch

Beth Cooper Lawrence, Women in Housing and Finance

Holly Leicht, Muncipal Art Society

David Levy

Sharon Levy, YMCA

Barbara Lizzenberg, Peterson Lizzenberg

Carolyn Lukensmeyer, AmericaSpeaks

Kimberly Miller, Citizens Housing & Planning Council

John Mollenkopf, Center for Urban Research

Suzanne O'Keefe, Alliance for Downtown New York

Nancy Owens, Community Board 1

Michael Payne, Columbia University

Steven Peterson, Peterson Lizzenberg

Marion Poessl,

Sumner Rosen, Five Borough Institute

Caroline Samuels, NY Morgage Coalition

Melissa Saunders, University of Pennsylvania

William Schacht, Lockwood Greene

Kate Schmidt, Manhattan Borough President's Office

Josephine Schwartz,  NYCHA

Shirley Secunda, American Planning Association

Ethel Sheffer, New School

Ron Shiffman, PICCED

Peggy Shiller, Milano Graduate School, New School University

Bill Shore, NYU Institute of Public Administration

Jeremy Soffin

Jasulca Terman

Ann Marie St. Germain

Jasulca Terman

Linda Stone Davidoff, Citizens Union

Mark Strauss, Fox & Fowle Architects

Susan Szenasy, Rebuild Downtown Our Town (RDOT) / Metropolis Magazine

Marilyn Taylor, Skidmore Owings & Merrill

Petra Todorovich, RPA

Jim Tripp, Environmental Defense

Ann Van Ingen, NY State Council on the Arts

Alex Viado, Citizens Union

Tova Wang, Century Foundation

Steve Weber, RPA

Joe Weisbord, Housing First

Toya Williford, RPA

Beverly Willis, RDOT; Architecture Research Institute

Madelyn Wils, Community Board 1

Tom Wright, RPA

Robert Yaro, RPA