A Plea for Quality Public Spaces

Architect and planner Alexander Garvin takes a walk through New York City's public spaces, and says the city has been paying too much attention to new buildings and not enough on the public realm.

1 minute read

December 3, 2011, 9:00 AM PST

By Tim Halbur

Garvin spoke at an even looking at the 50th anniversary of a zoning resolution in New York City that gave developers incentives to create public/private spaces on their property:

"Mr. Garvin argues that the city should reverse its approach, zoning neighborhoods like Midtown, Lower Manhattan and Williamsburg, Brooklyn, by thinking first about the shape of public space instead of private development. And it was clear why on our walk. We started at the Citigroup Plaza, which is far from the worst public space in the city. With a few shops, trees and the entrances to the building and subway drawing people down into it, it's at least busier and less glum than most sunken plazas, and inviting in ways that the barren patch of sidewalk across the street isn't."

FULL STORY: Treasuring Urban Oases

Friday, December 2, 2011 in The New York Times

Land Use New York Public Spaces Alexander Garvin

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