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06.03.26
From Pilot to Permanent: Delivering New York’s Public Realm
Event
Special Projects
June 3rd, 2026
8:30am - 10:30am
Thornton Tomasetti
Equitable Life Building, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10004, USA
Hunter Armstrong is Executive Director at Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI), where he leads planning, advocacy, and neighborhood engagement for greenways, bringing over two decades of experience improving public spaces in New York City. He has advised on the 2025 Greater Greenways Plan, convened the 2024 and 2026 NYC Greenways Summits, and serves as co-chair of the NYC Greenways Coalition.
Yin Kong (邝海音) is a community-based designer and curator living and working in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Together with an intergenerational group of volunteers, she built Think!Chinatown, a non-profit focusing on neighborhood engagement fostered by storytelling and the arts. Through projects like Chinatown Arts Week, The Art of Storytelling, & Everyday Chinatown, T!C honors, explores, and presents the culture and history of the community that have long made NYC’s Chinatown a vibrant immigrant neighborhood. Previously an Urban Curator of the Dashilar Project, she consulted for a municipal agency in Beijing on urban revitalization strategies within the city’s historic hutong core. Her work has been presented at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2016 and the Shenzhen Biennale of Architecture 2007 & 2009. She also loves sharing Thomas Jefferson facts which she picked up during her time working at Monticello. Yin holds a Masters of Architecture, Urban Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London and a Bachelor’s in Urban Studies from Columbia University.
Laura Starr, Founding Partner of Starr Whitehouse, brings over 35 years of experience in New York City, leading projects including the Battery Park Playscape, Marsha P. Johnson State Park, and Arverne East Urban Nature Preserve. Since Hurricane Sandy, she has been central to the City's resilience response — leading landscape design for the Rebuild By Design team known as The BIG U and supporting the City's Climate Strong Communities initiative.
Emily Weidenhof is Assistant Commissioner at NYC DOT, where she has spent over a decade working with communities across the five boroughs to transform streets as public space. Her work spans plazas, shared streets, and curb-lane innovation, including the comprehensive Broadway Vision Plan reimagining the corridor from Union Square to Columbus Circle for pedestrians and cyclists.
Becky Yurek is Chief of Park Operations and Capital Planning at Prospect Park Alliance, where she oversees the stewardship and long-term capital planning. Her career spans architecture, landscape, and urban design, including a decade at the NYC Department of Design and Construction, where she led major reform efforts to modernize capital project delivery and advance more transparent, accessible government.
Join Urban Design Forum and ULI New York for a discussion on delivering the future of New York’s public realm.
New York City has long struggled to translate public realm ambitions into permanent infrastructure — stalled by red tape, unreliable funding, and a capital delivery process that keeps promising ideas at the pilot stage. As the Mamdani administration pursues an affordability agenda where great streets, plazas, and public spaces are inseparable from livable neighborhoods, the question is no longer whether to invest in the public realm, but how to build it faster, smarter, and more equitably. The City must confront the structural barriers — across permitting, delivery, and maintenance — that prevent temporary interventions from becoming permanent transformations.
We’re thrilled to welcome Hunter Armstrong, Yin Kong, Laura Starr, and Emily Weidenhof, moderated by Becky Yurek, to discuss: How can we deliver quality public spaces efficiently and equitably across every New York City neighborhood?
Guest & Accessibility Policies
Urban Design Forum promotes conversations between invited civic leaders, designers, developers, and advocates. This event is open to Forum Members and ULI Members. Members may also invite a guest to join them.
We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals to engage fully.
- Doors open at 8:30 am. Program begins at 9:00 am.
- This venue is ADA accessible. There will be microphones and speakers.
- If you’re not feeling well, please stay home. Face masks are encouraged, particularly if you have been recently exposed to colds, flus, or other illness. If you have been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 10 days, a high-quality, well-fitting face covering is required at all times.
- Please refrain from wearing strong fragrances to accommodate guests with allergies or environmental sensitivities.
- If you have additional needs, we will do our best to accommodate. Please contact rsvp@urbandesignforum.org.
Continuing Education
This event has been submitted for AIA CES LUs and AICP CM credits.
About our Program Partner, ULI New York
The Urban Land Institute is a global, member-driven organization comprising nearly 50,000 real estate and urban development professionals dedicated to advancing the Institute’s mission of shaping the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide.
About Urban Design Forum
Urban Design Forum connects and inspires New Yorkers to design, build and care for a better city. We are a member-powered organization of 1,200+ civic leaders committed to a more just future for New York City.
Image Credit: NYC DDC
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