Archinect - News

Field Operations will lead new Fifth Avenue pedestrian corridor redesign in Manhattan

2023-10-13T17:18:00-04:00

Field Operations has announced its participation as the design lead for a new public space and pedestrianization project that will affect a large swath of Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

The new “Future of Fifth” project, announced by New York Mayor Eric Adams this week, will permanently reimagine the area between Bryant Park and Central Park South based on an 11-block pilot that last year added $3 million in revenue to local businesses, according to a study performed by Mastercard.

Field Operations will be joined on the project by Arcadis, Sam Schwartz, Public Works Partners, and a number of other design and engineering firms, seven of which are either minority- or women-owned business enterprises. It is seen as an extension of the city’s Open Streets program that was targeted at local businesses’ recoveries after the pandemic and builds on a larger $375 million investment in public space outlined in Adams’ “Working People's Agenda” from earlier this year.

Together, the firms wi...

Outdoor dining in New York City to become permanent — and stricter

2023-08-07T17:18:00-04:00

Outdoor dining along New York City streets, one of the rare pandemic-era accommodations that proved popular, is set to become permanent — but in a way that could drive many restaurant owners to take down their streetside sheds for good.

A New York City Council bill introduced in February that will make outdoor dining structures in roadways permanent through a licensing system was passed last week. The move aims to preserve the popular program while being able to exert more control over it. One stipulation is that roadway structures can only stand from April through November, which would be followed by their deconstruction and storage during the winter. This aspect of the bill has seen blowback from restaurant owners who claim it will be a costly task that also impacts dining options for patrons and the employment of restaurant workers.

Previously on Archinect: Third wave Open Streets: Open for whom?

With the bill, New York City’s Transportation Department is set to establish basic design guidelines for outdoor dining. Restaurants will now be required to pay fees based on their location and square footage. Establishments in historic districts or landmark sites will also need to acquire approval from the city’s Landm...

New York City announces Ya-Ting Liu as its first-ever chief public realm officer

2023-02-17T18:11:00-05:00

In the interest of providing official guardianship for its vast inventory of public spaces, New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday (Feb. 16) announced former transit advocate Ya-Ting Liu will be the city's first-ever public realms officer.

According to the New York Times, her role was created to be a kind of “central point person” for various city agencies and newfound initiatives such as the Open Streets program and outside dining in line with proposals contained in the Making New York for Everyone plan that was developed by the administration and announced in late-December.

“Our city’s public spaces are too important to fall through the cracks of bureaucracy, and now they won’t," Adams said in a press release. "New Yorkers need to know there is one person at City Hall whose number one goal is to improve their quality of life by creating incredible, new public spaces and ensuring the ones we have are clean, equitable, and safe."

Earlier on Archinect: NYC's new planning director...

New York City considers making Grand Army Plaza car-free

2022-11-15T09:00:00-05:00

The city’s Department of Transportation is considering making Grand Army Plaza car-free and connecting it to the Open Streets on Vanderbilt and Underhill Avenues, officials said this week.

The NYC Department of Transportation is currently seeking the public’s feedback regarding improvements to an area that’s been defined by constant traffic, disrepair, and hazardous conditions for pedestrians and cyclists. The agency hopes it can access the $904 million that Mayor Eric Adams pledged to tackle the city’s traffic violence and improve public transportation infrastructure.

The Department is expected to draft plans within the year. Last Saturday, November 12th, they hosted an outreach session, which will be followed by a virtual online workshop on November 16th.

New York City is debating a permanent move to keep outdoor dining structures in place despite criticism

2022-02-14T14:07:00-05:00

Big changes to the Big Apple’s alfresco restaurant scene are on the table — including a plan to get rid of its popular, but controversial, outdoor dining sheds. The head of the city Department of Transportation’s Open Restaurants Program told a City Council committee on Tuesday that the makeshift structures won’t be allowed to remain standing after the COVID-19 pandemic eases.

The makeshift structures will be allowed to remain in place until July, according to Department of Transportation’s Open Restaurants Program director Julie Schipper, who said a more thorough application process would be enacted that would do away with “these full houses … in the street.”

The sheds have been hailed by some as a potential pathway to an Open Streets initiative proposed by the previous mayoral administration that would remake much of Manhattan’s grid-like layout into a car-free pedestrian zone. Others have been vehemently opposed to their existence, complaining that their presence in neighborhoods like the Lower East Side has led to increases in rodent infestation, street crime, and a lack of accessibility.

Previously on Archinect: Third wave Open Streets: Open for whom?

“While we’ve created a program for restaurants, we haven’t created a program for the shoe store next door, for the bookstore next door to that, to the hardware store that have all lost sidewalk space, t...

Outdoor dining one step further towards becoming permanent in New York City

2021-11-19T15:23:00-05:00

Despite some ongoing litigation, New York City took a major step this week toward making outdoor dining a permanent part of the city's infrastructure. On Monday, the City Planning Commission voted unanimously for a zoning text amendment that will create a clean slate for the city to develop and regulate a permanent program, and will ultimately allow more restaurants to set up outdoor dining structures across the city.

The amendment removes geographic restrictions on where outdoor dining spaces can be located in New York, making the application process for sidewalk and roadway eateries much simpler.

The City Council and mayor will now have to approve the text amendment. Confidence that it will go through is high, given that the City Council voted to make outdoor dining permanent last year and current Mayor Bill de Blasio and incoming Mayor Eric Adams have both pledged support for the move. Once approved, the city will begin developing the specifications for the program, which will include a six-month outreach program in order to receive public input on the program’s design and rules.

Outdoor dining area sitting requirements. Diagram: © NYC DOT

Opponents of the plan argue that the outdoor structures for dining add litter, create more noise at night, and take up parking spots. As reported by Gothamist, a group of 22 New York City residents recently filed a lawsuit to block the Open Restaurants Prog...

NYC's new planning director Anita Laremont on the importance of the public realm

2021-11-04T15:08:00-04:00

COVID-19 also showed us the divide that we have in the city. There are BIPOC communities and communities with lower incomes that have very poor-quality public realms that we need to focus on more closely. People who live in the South Bronx need to have the same kind of opportunities to be outdoors and in quality settings in ways that they didn't before.

Anita Laremont, the newly appointed Director of the NYC Department of City Planning and Chair of the City Planning Commission, when asked about her priorities in light of Mayor Bill de Blasio's term coming to an end soon: "We believe our priorities will continue to be the new mayor's priorities in dealing with the challenging issue of not having enough affordable housing for all our citizens. Other public realm issues we face coming out of the pandemic are job opportunities and economic development."

New report highlights inequities and shortcomings of NYC Mayor de Blasio's Open Streets program

2021-10-19T18:47:00-04:00

A new report released by New York City-based, non-profit advocacy group Transportation Alternatives reveals the deficiencies of Mayor Bill de Blasio's Open Streets program, an initiative formed in the wake of the pandemic to create safe, socially distanced outdoor space for New Yorkers. Less than half of the Open Streets are currently active, with further flaws in the form of inequitable access to and quality of those that are operational.

The report titled, Open Streets Forever: The Case for Permanent 24/7 Open Streets, was formed through a data collection effort that included nearly 800 reports from volunteer surveyors who visited all 274 Open Street locations across the five boroughs this summer. The report finds that Mayor de Blasio’s program has fallen short of the promised 100-mile mark for street closures and has failed to serve all New Yorkers equally.

According to the report, only 46% of listed Open Streets were actually active, which is equivalent to 24 miles. Of these, 3...

Third wave Open Streets: Open for whom?

2021-07-02T09:00:00-04:00

According to New York Times restaurant critic, Pete Wells, who “loves outdoor dining,” the Big Apple is in the process of another makeover with a “third wave” of Open Restaurants being added to the city’s already bustling streets.

Nevertheless, as more parking spaces are given over to myriad semi-permanent structures, how this program is enacted will determine who is able to enjoy the public realm. Are restaurant-going people the only New Yorkers that should stand to benefit from this significant shift in urban design?

Open Restaurants and Open Streets were conceived in 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, in which indoor dining was prohibited, allowing restaurants to move their tables outside. The latter was designed to provide additional public space for New Yorkers to socially distance outdoors. Restaurant-going locals have enjoyed the redesign of city streets—however provisional the structures—and now, through regulation, the city has the opportunity to make this a...

New York City unveils plan to convert roads into open, public spaces

2021-05-17T16:09:00-04:00

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced the “Open Boulevards” program, a new initiative to enhance and expand ten multi-block corridors to create more open space throughout the city. The plan builds off of last year’s “Open Streets: Restaurants” program, which transformed miles of streets into open space for diners, cyclists, and pedestrians to enjoy while also assisting small businesses during the pandemic.

With Open Streets, designated areas had limited vehicle access and no through traffic was permitted. Only vehicles that were parking, picking up and dropping off, delivering, and performing essential services were allowed, advised to to be extremely cautious and to drive five miles per hour or slower on the streets. Temporary full closures were also in effect, which completely halted vehicle access, including parking, on certain streets. Additionally, according to Andrew Rigie, the head of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, the program has so far allowed about 100...