NYC's Planning Director Profiled

"Compared with a Robert Moses, the think-big public works czar who imposed a sweeping vision on highways and parks across the city from the 1930's to the 60's, Ms. Burden might be considered an aesthetic watchdog.

In devising urban design master plans, Ms. Burden has set enforceable guidelines like those for Hudson Yards that mandate retail spaces with a sense of continuity and transparency, ample sidewalk widths, trees along the street, adequate tower setbacks and limits on tower widths. Without Ms. Burden, there might be no High Line project, its supporters say, a plan for a 22-block elevated garden stretching from the downtown meatpacking district to 34th Street on Manhattan's West Side."

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