Recent Posts
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Closing the bowtie
Times Square is one of the most crowded pedestrian areas in the city. As I covered over a year ago, the Times Square Alliance, the local business association, suggested closing the cutover between Seventh Avenue and Broadway - the “bowtie”, to create additional pedestrian space between the two avenues. … Keep reading…
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New York public spaces good and bad
Speaking of public space, the Project for Public Spaces has put together a detailed commentary on New York’s public space - the good spaces, the terrible ones, and the opportunities for the future. Keep reading…
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Good riddance ugly planters
Times Square is crowded. At almost all hours, the sidewalks are full of pedestrians. But that didn’t stop a bunch of buildings from installing large planters or other barriers after 9/11. They ostensibly kept potential terrorists from driving up to the buildings, but more often (i.e. almost constantly) kept potential pedestrians from having room to… Keep reading…
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Hiro’s U-Stor-It
In the book Snow Crash, Hiro Protagonist (the protagonist, of course) lives in a U-Stor-It, a storage facility. There’s a building in Oakland, right next to Interstate 880, right at a curve positioned in a way that made it very visible from either direction. Keep reading…
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Westwood controversy swirls on Alpie.net
I get email notifications of new comments on this blog, and every so often there’s a comment on some really old post. The post that’s generated this most often is January’s discussion of Westwood Station, a mixed-use development proposal next to the Route 128 MBTA and Amtrak station in Westwood, MA (about 30 minutes south of Boston). Keep reading…
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NYC BRT
On Thursday, I was in the vicinity of 10th Avenue and 23rd Street, heading home. Since 10th Avenue turns into Amsterdam and I live half a block from Amsterdam, I decided to try taking the M11 bus. I knew traffic would be bad, and wasn’t in a rush, but getting past the Lincoln Tunnel was horrifically slow. Keep reading…
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Scott Stringer supports moving MSG
Following up to my post on moving Madison Square Garden and restoring a grand Penn Station, Borough President Scott Stringer has announced his support for the idea, and advocates for ensuring public participation in the planning process. Keep reading…
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“Suburban sensibility”
A Times article about Newport, the dense mixed-used development on the Hudson waterfront in Jersey City, talks about how the LeFrak family turned this wasteland of abandoned railyards into a thriving neighborhood. It’s a real success story and a great - and uncommon - example of how open developable spaces can be turned into something better than two-story generic… Keep reading…
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Save Our Superblock
One of the travesties of 1950s-era urban planning was the “superblock”, where cities disrupted the regular street grid to build large towers surrounded by windswept plazas. Most of these superblocks are now recognized as mistakes, such as Boston’s City Hall Plaza, a huge barren space nearly empty all year round, and the World Trade Center superblock,… Keep reading…
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Restoring Penn Station: Possible?
In the 1960s, the beautiful Penn Station was torn down and replaced by the hideous Madison Square Garden, relegating America’s busiest train station to a cramped basement. Now, New York is poised to build a new grand Moynihan Station on the west side of 8th Avenue, in the old Farley Post Office building that happens to have been designed by the same architects. No… Keep reading…