Events
On June 16, join us for a roundtable discussion on tailoring development tools to deliver greater public benefits with 21 Visions for 2021 advisors Caroline Harris, AJ Pires, and Laura Wolf-Powers. Speakers will later be joined by respondents Munsun Park, Nur Asri, and Valerie White.
Join us for a discussion on designing an inclusive public realm under the next mayor with Seb Choe, Lindsay Harkema, Margaret Jankowsky, Inbar Kishoni, and Justin Garrett Moore. Thriving neighborhoods have beautiful parks, well-maintained plazas, lively high streets, and welcoming public buildings that encourage New Yorkers to gather and interact. Yet marginalized communities often lack More
Join us in conversation with community leaders, designers, advocates, and policymakers to discuss the future of Open Streets in New York City. The past year has transformed New York City’s streetscape. Through the Open Streets program, communities across all five boroughs animated streets for joyful gathering, play, education, health, and resiliency. As we emerge from More
Join us in conversation with Louis Bailey, Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes, Fernando Ortiz Baez, and Hatuey Ramos-Fermin as they discuss the future of community organizing. This past year highlighted the value of on-the-ground community organizing work, and generated a myriad of new possibilities for it. We have seen the rise of mutual aid networks, online organizing tactics that More
Join us in discussion with Sam Assefa, Director of Seattle’s Office of Planning & Community Development. After the discussion, Moses Gates, Annie Levers, and Beatrice Sibblies will join as respondents. In 2015, Seattle’s elected officials passed the 2035 Comprehensive Plan, a guide to future neighborhood growth. The 20-year roadmap framed planning, design and development initiatives More
Join us in conversation with U.S. Representative Jamaal Bowman and Julian Brave NoiseCat as they discuss: how can cities tie racial and economic justice to climate action? The challenges facing New York and cities around the world are manyfold: the public health crises of the pandemic, decades of environmental racism, and a widening racial wealth More
On March 18, Forefront Fellows hosted a discussion on creative strategies to support business conversions to employee ownership.
Join us in discussion with Kim Phillips-Fein, Andrew Rein and Xavier de Souza Briggs as they discuss lessons learned from past financial crises and ways to center equity in future city budgets. During our discussion, Jennifer Sun and Kate Slevin will join us as respondents. The economic crises of 1975 and 2008 left municipalities across More
On February 18, Forefront Fellows hosted a workshop investigating how the 15-minute neighborhood framework can build community power and support a resilient recovery in New York. As New Yorkers face the triple threat of COVID-19, the climate crisis, and economic inequality, planners, designers and policy-makers are exploring solutions for a just, green recovery. The 15-minute More
On February 18, Forefront Fellows hosted a cross-sectoral discussion on building a pipeline for green careers through investment in public infrastructure. Historically in moments of economic downturn, the investment, construction, and maintenance of public infrastructure has been leveraged as a key mechanism for job creation and workforce development — from the New Deal of the More
Join us in conversation with Maurice Jones of LISC and Brandee McHale of Citi Foundation, as they explore how to embrace racial equity to transform how we invest in cities. Many individuals and companies have been activated in new ways towards centering and prioritizing targeted investments to communities of color. Citi’s Action for Racial Equity More
Join us for a lunchtime discussion with the 2020 Forefront Fellows on investing in an inclusive green economy in New York City. This year, our Forefront Fellows partnered with the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives and Mayor’s Office of M/WBE to collect creative recommendations on channeling investment in building retrofits to MWBEs, employee owned businesses, More
Join the Urban Design Forum and the Union Square Partnership for the launch of the Union Square 14th Street Vision Plan. The plan advances a vision for Union Square-14th Street as a pedestrian-friendly nexus of the city, improving connectivity, reclaiming streetscapes, and expanding open space. With newly dynamic plaza spaces and innovative new design elements More
Join us in discussion with Nikil Saval, Jonsara Ruth, and Diana Hernández on ideas for a just housing recovery as seen through a health equity lens after COVID-19. During our discussion, Sandra Lobo and Eric Fang joined us as respondents. The link between access to safe and quality housing and our health has never been More
Join Urban Design Forum and Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development in discussion with Betsy Plum, Robbie Makinen, and Warren Logan on the future of transportation equity after COVID-19. Public transportation networks are the lifeblood of our cities. Throughout the pandemic, access to transit has been especially necessary for frontline workers that largely live in More
Join Urban Design Forum and Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development in discussion with Kerry McLean, New York State Senator James Sanders, and Paulina Gonzalez-Brito on the future of community finance and community development after COVID-19. Access to capital remains one of the greatest challenges for community development. Over time, federal regulations like the Community More
Join us for the two-part Neighborhoods Now Summit: Strategies for Reopening and Recovery, a culminating event reflecting on how collaborative design can inform neighborhood recovery strategies. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Urban Design Forum and Van Alen Institute joined forces to launch Neighborhoods Now, an initiative connecting NYC neighborhoods hit hard by the More
Join us for the two-part Neighborhoods Now Summit: Strategies for Reopening and Recovery, a culminating event reflecting on how collaborative design can inform neighborhood recovery strategies. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Urban Design Forum and Van Alen Institute joined forces to launch Neighborhoods Now, an initiative connecting NYC neighborhoods hit hard by the More
Join Urban Design Forum and Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development in conversation with Mehrsa Baradaran on strategies to combat the racial wealth gap in cities. Throughout United States history, banking policies have shaped the dramatic racial wealth gap across the country. Today, access to capital is still tied to an anti-Blackness history which bars More
On June 26, join us for a roundtable session bringing together the Neighborhoods Now working groups and diverse built environment and community heath experts. The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color, and threatens to expand the racial wealth gap in neighborhoods that already lack access to resources as a result of long-term structural More
On December 17, Fellows joined us for drinks and discussion on how historic racial planning policies produced the spatial inequalities of New York City today.
On December 5, Josh Margul, Jennifer McDonnell, Clare Miflin, Michael Offerman, Zara Fina Stasi, and our Forefront Fellows hosted an evening exploring the future of urban systems.
On November 20, Fellows were invited for drinks and discussion on the history of the community planning process in New York City.
On October 28, David Karnovsky, V. Mitch McEwen, Jack Robbins, and Ben Carlos Thypin discussed the history and future of zoning in New York City.
On May 29, we hosted a debate on the future of industrial zones in New York City with Andrew Chung, Armando Moritz-Chapelliquen, Toby Moskovits and Toby Sheppard Bloch.
On December 12, we hosted a roundtable conversation with the new NYC Nightlife Mayor Ariel Palitz, Danny Pearlstein, Leni Schwendinger, Andreina Seijas, and Luc Wilson on designing an inclusive and equitable night realm.
On January 17, the Urban Design Forum invited Frances Halsband, Elissa Hoagland, Andrew Lavallee, Signe Nielsen, and Commissioner Mitchell Silver to debate how to design and finance New York City's neighborhood parks.
On December 13, the Urban Design Forum invited Ken Fisher, Robert Paley, Joe Rose, Matthew Washington and Madelyn Wils to discuss creative proposals for how TDR can be utilized to maintain New York City’s public infrastructures.
On November 30, we were joined by Dan Doctoroff and Fiona Fletcher-Smith for international dialogue on bringing great cities back from economic recession.
On June 20, for the first Forefront roundtable of the year, we were joined by Doug Saunders, author of Arrival City, which inspired the German Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale and this year's Forefront program theme, and Max Hadler, Senior Health Advocacy Manager for the New York Immigration Coalition.
New York City Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen and London Deputy Mayor Jules Pipe engaged in a cross-Atlantic dialogue on how both cities grapple with creating a fair and equitable city in the face of continued growth.
In the last two weeks, New Yorkers have taken to the streets to defend our city’s values of diversity and inclusion. In this turbulent political climate, public spaces like Times Square are critical to our democracy: as places where people can safely speak their minds and agitate in defense of their families and neighbors.
New working districts are evolving in major cities across the world, with hubs of talent and creativity taking shape beyond the center. How are the global cities, New York and London, transforming their neighborhoods to accommodate new ways of working?
On November 7, the Urban Design Forum hosted its Fall Dinner, Momentum: New Mobility and the City. To celebrate our yearlong Onward initiative exploring new ideas to reimagine New York City’s streets and transit networks. we invited Jay Walder and Rohit Aggarwala to consider how new sensing, sharing, and cycling technologies are not only changing our streets but the city itself.
On November 2, the Urban Design Forum featured an exclusive behind the scenes look at the latest two development sites on the DUMBO waterfront: Empire Stores and One John Street. Click for a full recap and photos from the tour!
The Lowline is a plan to use innovative solar technology to illuminate an historic trolley terminal on the Lower East Side of New York City. Join us for a tour of the Lowline Lab, a long-term open laboratory and technical exhibit designed to test and showcase how the Lowline will grow and sustain plants underground.
For Garvin, a great city is a dynamic, constantly changing place that residents and their leaders can reshape to satisfy their demands. Looking at several North American and European cities, from New York to Seattle and Paris to Madrid, Garvin examines how these cities have adapted and transformed over time.
Environmental sensors are touted as a panacea for identifying, measuring and solving pressing urban problems. Our Forefront Fellows will take a deep dive into the new Internet of Things frontier with key figures in two cutting edge companies, Jeff Maki from Intersection and Alexandre Winter from Placemeter.
On June 15, the Urban Design Forum invited Tara Pham, Co-founder and CEO of CTY; Oliver Schaper, Practice Area Leader in Planning & Urban Design for Gensler’s North-East region; Sam Schwartz, President, and CEO of Sam Schwartz Engineering; Claire Weisz, Founding Principal at WXY architecture + urban design, and moderator Jill Lerner, Principal at Kohn Pedersen More
Spotlight events invite Forefront Fellows working in similar areas to present current projects for reflection and feedback from their peers. Our first spotlight event will focus on Fellows working to create new forms of meaningful community engagement. As our invited guest critic, Urban Design Forum Fellow and new Executive Director of the NYC Public Commission Justin Garret Moore will moderate a discussion following the presentations.
On June 15, the Urban Design Forum invited Jill Morgenweck, Director of Regional Operations at Shyp; Makoto Okazaki, Partner and Principal Architect at Michael Sorkin Studio; Paul Salama, Zoning + GIS Lead at Envelope; Juliette Spertus, Co-founder of ClosedLoops; and moderator Greg Lindsay to debate the future of urban freight. Lindsay introduced the roundtable by More
On May 25, the Urban Design Forum invited Kate Ascher, Partner at Buro Happold; Margaret Newman, Associate Principal at Arup; Paolo Santi, Research Scientist at MIT Senseable City Lab; and Catherine Seavitt, Principal of Catherine Seavitt Studio, to participate in our second roundtable on the future of transportation in New York City. After a brief More
Urban Experience Design, our very first Forefront program series, will explore how new civic technologies are transforming the management and operations of the public realm, and debate how big data might be applied to build a more dynamic, equitable and resilient city. The series will kick off with an examination of new spatial analysis tools, and how they enable citizen participation and government transparency.
Join us April 25 for cocktails and conversation on the future of surface transit in New York. As New York’s population booms and subway construction costs skyrocket, city officials are turning to leaner solutions like bus rapid transit, bike share and ferry routes to move New Yorkers. But how can we connect the city’s burgeoning waterfront More
In January 2016, the Urban Design Forum led a hard hat tour of the World Trade Center Transportation Hub led by Robert Eisenstat, Chief Architect of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. The $4 billion, Santiago Calatrava-designed hub will connect 11 different subway lines and serve an estimated 200,000 commuters each day. More
New technologies are revolutionizing the way we move through cities. Car- and bike-share options are swaying more urbanites to ditch their cars. E-hail companies are enhancing ease and access across the five boroughs. Rapid delivery services are reducing trips to grocery stores and retailers. Autonomous cars and trucks are being tested on roads across America. How will these technologies shape our streets, transit networks, and public realm? Could private cars finally become obsolete?
On October 13, thirty Fellows of the Urban Design Forum participated in a members-only tour of the 7 Line extension and Hudson Yards construction site led by Beth Greenberg and Richard Dattner, Principals at Dattner; Shawn Kildare, Senior Vice President at MTA Capital Construction; Alexia Friend, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates; and Michael Samuelian, Vice President More
On September 16th the Urban Design Forum was joined by Robert A.M. Stern Architects and Cathleen McGuigan for rooftop cocktails and conversation about the firm’s recent work in China. Robert A.M. Stern Architects is an internationally recognized architecture firm based in New York City. Recent projects in China include Heart of Lake, a high-rise garden More
On July 20, the Urban Design Forum invited Ma Yansong, founding principal of MAD Architects, and Michael Sorkin, founding principal of Michael Sorkin Studio, to discuss Ma’s “Shanshui City” design philosophy. At the age of 39, Ma has already garnered international acclaim for his imaginative buildings and unorthodox urban design. His work draws inspiration from More
On June 23, the Urban Design Forum invited Benjamin Wood, founding principal of Studio Shanghai, and Randall Mason, chair of the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation at PennDesign, to discuss the interplay between economic development and historic preservation in China. Wood began by detailing the design of his signature project, Xintiandi. Rather than demolish the dilapidated More
Over the last 30 years, more than 200 million people have migrated from the countryside to China’s cities, and officials plan to relocate another 250 million rural residents over the next decade. 55% of China’s population is now living in cities. What are the consequences of this vast urban shift? On May 6, the More
In April 2014, fellows of the Urban Design Forum convened with top housing officials and experts to discuss the state of American public housing. Across the nation, cities from New Orleans to Chicago have razed and replaced housing projects with mixed-use communities, housing vouchers, and tax credits. New York City is one of the More
On November 17, the Forum + Institute for Urban Design invited Shola Olatoye, Chair of the New York City Housing Authority, and Jerilyn Perine, Director of the Citizens Housing & Planning Council, to discuss the future of public housing in New York City. Public housing, owned and managed by the New York City Housing Authority More
For nearly a century, the City of Vienna has built one of the world’s most ambitious social housing programs. Over 60% of all Viennese households live in council housing owned or subsidized by the Austrian government. And unlike the uniform housing blocks associated with other global cities, Vienna’s housing balances low rents with inventive architecture, More
London and New York are harnessing smart industries to drive growth in science, technology and research and underpin their respective pushes for global competitiveness. And designing to allow greater collaboration between companies and sectors appears to be one of the main thrusts in that drive, on both sides of the Atlantic.
After our inspiring spring forum surveying the state of public housing across the nation, we turned our attention to New York City. As many as 600,000 residents live in public housing managed by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Yet the authority faces mounting challenges: aging buildings in various states of disrepair, dwindling federal More
In February, the Fellows of the Forum donned heavy jackets for a crisp nighttime tour of the Capsys Plant at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Capsys is a renowned manufacturer of modular housing, specializing in hotels, multifamily housing, supportive housing, assisted living facilities rising as high as 13 stories. Tom O’Hara, Director of Business Development, guided More
On July 30, the Forum hosted the Next New York Fellows Dinner to celebrate the culmination of the Next New York series. Daniel Doctoroff (Bloomberg LP) and John Zuccotti (Brookfield Office Properties) joined Julia Vitullo-Martin (Regional Plan Association) in conversation about new directions for the next mayor. What were the most pressing challenges facing New More
In June 2013, Fellows of the Forum for Urban Design toured the first phase of construction on Governors Island. Led by Jamie Maslyn Larson, Principal of West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture, and Leslie Koch, President of the Trust for Governors Island, the Fellows took a sneak peek at over thirty acres of new More
In December 2012, fellows of the Forum assembled to discuss plans for one of New York City’s key new development projects: the CornellNYC Tech campus on Roosevelt Island. The Forum met with Andrew Winters, Director of Capital Projects for the university, to review the master plan and proposed architecture. Situated just north of Four Freedoms More
On October 12, Forum Fellows met with New London Architecture members to confront the challenge of balancing investment in the city and its suburbs.
In September 2012, the fellows of the Forum gathered to debate the viability of the Low Line, a proposed underground park underneath Delancey Street on New York’s Lower East Side. The pair behind the park, James Ramsey and Dan Barasch, are exhibiting a prototype of a new technology that filters light from the surface underground, More
Spontaneous Interventions: design actions for the common good was first presented as the exhibition of the U.S. Pavilion at the 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale (Fall 2012). It documents the nascent movement of designers acting on their own initiative to solve problematic urban situations, creating new opportunities and amenities for the public. Provisional, improvisational, guerrilla, More
Three months leading up to its inauguration by Jay-Z, the Forum hosted a tour with Forest City Ratner of the Barclays Center, the arena at the heart of the Atlantic Yards project in Downtown Brooklyn. Winthrop Hoyt, Assistant Vice President of Development in charge of the arena project, sorted through the project’s history, from the More
In April 2012, the Forum for Urban Design convened to discuss the tallest building in the world to be built with modular construction. Bruce Ratner and MaryAnne Gilmartin of Forest City Ratner and Christopher Sharples of SHoP Architects presented their ambitious 32 story prefab tower at Atlantic Yards. Although modular construction has been experimented with More
On March 8, the Forum for Urban Design and the Museum of Modern Art, with generous support by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, gathered a national homebuilder, a former NYC City Planning Director turned suburban developer, a prominent Phoenix advocate, and a leading New Urbanist to debate the proposals put forth in the MoMA More
On February 28, Forum Fellows and New London Architecture members gathered for a breakthrough live video session to discuss the cities' new public spaces.
On November 2, the Forum convened four figures who have radically reconfigured the New York City urban landscape under Michael Bloomberg: Daniel Doctoroff, former Deputy Mayor for Economic Development; Janette Sadik-Khan, Commissioner of NYC DOT; Adrian Benepe, Commissioner of NYC Parks; and Adriaan Geuze, Principal of West 8 and Designer-in-Charge of Governors Island. Doctoroff opened More
On September 26, members of the Forum gathered to tackle the preservation of quotidian places. David Freeland, historian and author of Automats, Taxi Dances & Vaudeville, presented Tin Pan Alley and 135th Street, two sites of musical innovation at the turn of the twentieth century that had not yet been preserved by the New York More
Urban Design Week was a public festival created to engage New Yorkers in the fascinating and complex issues of the public realm, and to celebrate the streetscapes, sidewalks, and public spaces at the heart of city life. At its heart was By the City/ For the City, a crowdsourced design project that gathered more than More
On September 7 2011, Forum members trudged through mist and mud at the site of Franklin Delano Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on the southern tip of Roosevelt Island. The park was the proposed capstone project for Welfare Island when rechristened “Roosevelt Island” by Mayor Lindsay in the 1970s. Lack of city funding and political will More
On July 27, the Forum hosted Bjarke Ingels (BIG) and Craig Dykers (Snøhetta) to discuss new visions for the practice of urban design, with Monica Ponce de Leon (Taubman College) moderating the conversation. In their recent work, both architects demonstrated a dedication to working with constituents to shape the form of new public spaces. Mr. Dykers More
On June 1, Michael Van Valkenburgh, lead designer of the park, and Regina Myer, President of BBP, led members through the playgrounds, lawns, and piers of Brooklyn Bridge Park. Beginning at Pier 6, Michael Van Valkenburgh confronted the challenges of integrating the nearby neighborhoods around Atlantic Avenue into the park while maintaining a sense of More
The demolition of McKim, Meade & White’s original Pennsylvania Station in 1963 provoked historian Vincent Scully to write “One entered the city like a god. One now scuttles in like a rat.” Fifty years later, a Beaux Arts landmark by the same architects, the Farley Post Office, will become the West Side’s newest train hall. More
The Urban Design Forum and the Times Square Alliance kicked off 2011 by hosting a conversation with three designers of the future Times Square on January 27. Tim Tompkins (Times Square Alliance) opened the evening by presenting the timeline of Times Square in the last thirty years, from a crime-infested neighborhood into the overcrowded commercial More
In October 2005, fifty-eight days after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city of New Orleans, the Forum for Urban Design hosted a forum about the future of the Big Easy. Five years later, the Forum was joined once again by Kristina Ford, former Planning Director for the City of New Orleans, to discuss her recent book, More
In the past decade, a new breed of urbanization, the eco-city, has been conceived to anticipate the effects of the built environment on climate change. Several models have been proposed in Asia and the Middle East, where large swaths of urban fabric are being woven almost overnight. Yet the question remains–how does one define and More
In conjunction with The Drawing Center’s exhibition of Paul Rudolph’s design for the Lower Manhattan Expressway on view through November 20th and hosted by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union, this panel examined the tenor of the times which led The Ford Foundation to commission Rudolph to react to Robert More
On September 14, members gathered for the second behind-the-scenes tour this summer, guided by architectural historian Dan Okrent, author of Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center. Okrent began the tour at the Top of the Rock, where he discussed John D. Rockefeller’s aspirations to build one of Gotham’s greatest landmarks. Members were then led More
On August 19, the Forum hosted an exclusive tour and discussion of the recently re-designed Lincoln Center and Alice Tully Hall led by Elizabeth Diller and Daniel Brodsky. Elizabeth Diller began the tour in the lobby of Alice Tully Hall, a sculptural concert hall and university building for the Juilliard School that was recently completed More
On July 7 2010, The Forum for Urban Design hosted a discussion about the future of America with Joel Kotkin and Christopher B. Leinberger, moderated by Kenneth T. Jackson. What will America look like in 2050 when its population is expected to increase by over 100 million people? Will the next 100 million Americans live More
The scope of the destruction that followed the January 12 earthquake in Haiti was so great that the rebuilding process must seek to transform the country’s built environment, not just replace it. The quake’s effects were clearly magnified by informal building practices and the concentration of people and industry in Port-au-Prince, while the environmental damage More
Saturday, November 7th, 2009 The Great Hall, The Cooper Union Free admission Arrested Development: Do Megaprojects Have a Future? In November 2009, we hosted a public discussion with architects, developers, policymakers and economists on the state of megaprojects in light of the stalled economy. Astoundingly, this era of economic contraction has brought progress in environmental More
On November 17, the Institute for Urban Design hosted New York 2030, a day-long event focused on Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC, an ambitious project to turn New York into the world’s most sustainable metropolis. Anticipating that the city will be home to one million more inhabitants by the year 2030, PlaNYC includes strategies that improve housing, More
During the summers of 2007, 2008, and 2009, the Urban Design Forum and Storefront for Art and Architecture partnered to bring bike share to New York City. Years before the advent of Citi Bike, they invited New Yorkers to “imagine walking to a sidewalk corner and finding a public bicycle. With a cellphone call or More