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...

Los Angeles approves car-free 'superblock' pilot program

2023-06-26T17:57:00-04:00

The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday on a motion to identify a location to implement its first Park Block -- modeled after the city of Barcelona’s Superblocks, a block grid system that restricts traffic to major roads and opens up city blocks and streets to pedestrians.

The “Park Block” motion was initially introduced by Los Angeles District Councilmember Kevin de León last year. The program aims to save lives lost due to poor air quality and traffic violence. As detailed in a report by LA City Council’s Transportation Committee, the Blocks will serve to form open public space with adequate shade, outdoor recreation, greening, and stormwater capture in communities that lack parks.

Previously on Archinect: LA Councilmember introduces plan to establish Barcelona's car-free 'superblocks' in Los Angeles

The program will first be implemented in León’s District 14, which includes parts of downtown Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, and Eagle Rock. LA's Department of Transportation will choose which area will host the initial pilot, with priority given to communities that have the least access to public space, the highest health disparities, and high population densities. In addition, the Department will report back on what funding and resources are necessary to...

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.

Provencher_Roy completes transformation of historic downtown Montreal district into pedestrian mall

2022-10-19T15:59:00-04:00

Provencher_Roy has released photos of their recently completed pedestrian redevelopment along a six-block stretch of Montreal’s heavily-trafficked Sainte-Catherine St. West commercial district just north of Ville-Marie.

The project entailed the reimagining of a busy former four-lane street into a singular pedestrian and bicycle route between De Bleury and Mansfield Streets with the help of engineering consultants CIMA +.

Image by Adrien Williams, courtesy of Provencher_Roy

The plan increased greenery in the area by a total of 46% while eliminating street parking and drastically widening the sidewalk to create a linear plaza that connects a disjointed network of squares and public monuments into one “cohesive urban landscape.”

Image by Adrien Williams, courtesy of Provencher_Roy

Modular paving was used to achieve a visual distinction between vehicular lanes and the protected pedestr...

New York City plans to raise crosswalks to make hazardous intersections safer

2022-03-02T14:56:00-05:00

The white-striped crosswalk sits on top of a hump of asphalt. Pedestrians barely notice as they rush across, but drivers are in for a bumpy ride if they do not slow down. The crosswalk in northern Manhattan was raised four inches in the fall to try to slow traffic and make pedestrians more visible as they navigate a busy intersection where 26 people — including 14 pedestrians — have been injured in motor vehicle crashes in the past five years.

Following a surge in traffic deaths in New York, in which a total of 273 people, citywide, were killed in crashes last year, the highest since 2013, Mayor Eric Adams wants to raise hundreds of crosswalks across the city. With more people on the streets, occupying outdoor spaces opened up due to the pandemic, the return of traffic has increased safety risks. There are currently only 17 raised crosswalks out of the roughly 40,000 intersections across the city, which is a part of the streetscape where most injuries and deaths occur.

Starting this year, New York plans to add 100 raised crosswalks every year. This type of intervention has proven to be effective in improving safety and is relatively quick and inexpensive to install. The city also plans to redesign 1,000 dangerous intersections this year and will additionally target other problem spots such as parking lots and gas stations. The new crosswalks will be financed by city and federal funding.

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...

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

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

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

UPenn study uses biometric data to identify unsafe urban infrastructure

2021-07-21T17:08:00-04:00

A new study published in Accident Analysis & Prevention shows how biometric data can be used to find potentially challenging and dangerous areas of urban infrastructure before a crash occurs. Lead author Megan Ryerson led a team of researchers in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and the School of Engineering and Applied Science in collecting and analyzing eye-tracking data from cyclists navigating Philadelphia’s streets.

As explained in a piece by Penn Today, current federal rules for making safe transportation interventions require the notation of crashes. This reactive approach relies on previous human cost before new considerations are made. Seeking to minimize harmful events altogether, Ryerson and her team sought to capture data on human behavior to better understand what factors make an area unsafe rather than previous data.

The team developed a quantitative methodology to evaluate cognitive workload, a measure of mental effort put forth by someone in response to certain tasks, in cyclists when faced with various infrastructure designs.

One of the main findings was a correlation between locations with disproportionately high numbers of crashes and consistent biometric responses that indicated increased cognitive workload. While high cognitive workload doesn’t mean a person will definitely crash, it can be inferred that one is less effective in processing new information, which could lead to d...

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...

PAU proposes multi-modal plan for Manhattan streets

2020-07-09T14:41:00-04:00

The Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) has unveiled a plan envisioning how Manhattan's streets might transform to minimize auto dependency while embracing the widespread availability of dedicated bus and bicycle lanes as well as more generous pedestrian infrastructure.

The so-called "Not Your Car" (NYC) proposal envisions a future where private automobile use is drastically reduced in order to create urban fabric "focused on reappropriating public space back to people without the inequities and predation caused by the omnipresence of private cars."

A view of how city streets might change to accommodate new modes of traffic.

The scheme, developed under the leadership of PAU founder Vishaan Chakrabarti with support from Buro Happold, proposes to more or less get rid of on-street parking and private automobile traffic on most city streets, replacing this land-intensive arrangement with new pedestrian and public transit modes. Sidewalks would expand in width, street lanes forme...

BIG and WXY propose public realm improvements for Downtown Brooklyn

2019-12-27T16:29:00-05:00

A new plan by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership—a consortium of three business improvement districts—seeks to make room for all of those people by curtailing car access and installing protected bike lanes, colorful street furniture, and monumental gathering spaces.

Despite rapid population growth, Downtown Brooklyn seems to be missing the appeal for the increasing number of pedestrians and cyclists.

The newly unveiled Downtown Brooklyn Public Realm Vision, developed jointly by WXY architecture + urban design and Bjarke Ingels Group in collaboration with the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, proposes a number of public realm, streetscape & green infrastructure improvements for an entire neighborhood.

Gallatin Place reimagined. Image courtesy of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership

Desire paths as urban 'civil disobedience'

2018-10-08T15:47:00-04:00

Desire paths have been described as illustrating “the tension between the native and the built environment and our relationship to them”. Because they often form in areas where there are no pavements, they can be seen to “indicate [the] yearning” of those wishing to walk, a way for “city dwellers to ‘write back’ to city planners, giving feedback with their feet”.

Ellie Violet Bramley pens an ode to "desire paths"—organically grown foot paths off the prescribed paved sidewalks; pedestrians' yearning for urban movement outside of the planned city order.

Example of an urban desire path getting paved in Chicago. Photo: Paul Sableman/Flickr.

America’s Sorriest Bus Stop: Vancouver 'wins' this year's contest

2018-09-19T14:48:00-04:00

It’s official! The sorriest bus stop in America is in … Canada! The horrendous bus stop on the Lougheed Highway in Pitt Meadows, just outside of Vancouver, has won our annual contest, trouncing Cincinnati in a 58%-42% landslide.

Streetsblog has announced the 'winner' of its annual America’s Sorriest Bus Stop tournament, and it's an impressively desolate and pedestrian-inadequate spot on a highway outside of Vancouver, BC that gets to take home the crown this year.

Congrats on the 2nd place: Daly Road in Springfield Township, near Cincinnati. Image via streetsblog.com.

The competition was fierce, and many other contenders across North America stunned with glaringly unsafe conditions right along busy roads, omission of sidewalks, lack of benches and shelter from the elements, and absence of traffic lights or pedestrian crosswalk to reach these bus spots.

This bus stop at 9907 Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills sits in one of the nation's wealthiest ZIP codes, yet the domestic workers taking the bus from here have to run for their lives to reach it. Image via streetsblog.com.

Explore the full list of Sorriest Bus Stop contenders here.

America’s Sorriest Bus Stop tournament enters final round: it's Kansas City, MO vs. Silver Spring, MD

2016-08-05T14:28:00-04:00

Each of the 16 bus stops that competed this year — and the agencies who oversee them — deserved a thorough shaming. No transit rider should ever have to wait in the rain for a bus with no posted schedule, or walk in a ditch along an eight-lane highway after disembarking. These conditions are deplorable but all too common in American cities. The two bus stops facing off today — in Kansas City and Silver Spring [...]— had some extra dreadful quality that sets them apart in the eyes of our voters.

A bridge 57 years in the making, designed by Steven Holl

2016-07-20T13:32:00-04:00

In 1959, Edward Durell Stone had envisioned a pedestrian walkway connecting his unbuilt design for the Kennedy Center to the Potomac River, but it was not until this year that Steven Holl Architects gained approval for the bridge, which is part of the firm's larger expansion design for the center. The bridge will not only provide a tangible connection between the facility and the landscape, but allow opportunities to visit a cafe and view outdoor art events, including an exterior wall which will double as a site for broadcasts and simulcast performances.

“This is a joyful moment for a public space which will be shared and enjoyed by many in the future,” said Steven Holl in a press release. “After thoughtful review by these regulatory agencies, we have achieved complete approval for our Kennedy Center Expansion project and its public access to the Potomac Riverfront.”

Philly's sidewalks and the fickle space between public and private

2016-04-15T13:18:00-04:00

Legally, sidewalk repair is the responsibility of homeowners, but historically, enforcement of upkeep has been thin. [...] “[sidewalks] should be part of the money we spend on transportation ... because people who walk are transporting themselves on their feet.” [...] The liability is actually two-tiered: The property owner is responsible if someone sues after an injury due to poorly maintained sidewalks, but the city has secondary responsibility because sidewalks are public infrastructure.

Related on Archinect:

Sidewalks, New York's "most desirable real estate"

2016-03-09T13:02:00-05:00

New York collects about $60 million annually for allowing signs, ornamental lampposts, stand-alone clocks, benches, bollards, planters, permanent trash receptacles, delivery ramps and just about anything else imaginable on, over or under the city’s 12,000 miles of sidewalks. [...] Overall revenue from sidewalk-permit fees has risen by about 50 percent in the past decade, the bulk of it from utility companies for pipes and transformers below ground.

Related on Archinect:

Eric Garcetti vs the Car: how LA's mayor plans to change the way Angeleños get around

2016-01-14T13:15:00-05:00

Now in his third year as mayor, the 44-year-old [Eric Garcetti] wants Los Angeles to be “the first postmodern city,” as he tells me, speaking in his art-filled office one morning in October. Throughout the past year, he has made a series of proposals that would fundamentally alter the city by deposing the automobile, which has reigned over Los Angeles for a half-century like a cocksure Third World despot... Call him the Che Guevara of Southern California infrastructure.

Related:

Russian pedestrian infrastructure that teaches you a thing about avant-garde art

2015-11-18T18:25:00-05:00

Pedestrian crossings made up of fragments of famous works of avant-garde art have appeared in a residential area in the Russian city of Khimki, located just northwest of Moscow. Fragments of the work of Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich and Vasily Kandinsky feature on five pedestrian crossings in the “Gorod Naberezhniy” complex, chosen for their frequent use. Together with the zebra stripes, there are signs which provide information about the artwork and artist.

Related in the Archinect news:

Humanizing street design with 'shared space'

2015-10-12T14:35:00-04:00

The future of urban roads may be one where motorists, pedestrians and cyclists act as one. Spaces where these usually segregated members of the population live -- or move -- by the same rules. Most importantly, these rules would be social, not formal, to befit the increasingly popular trend of 'shared space'. "Shared space breaks the principle of segregation," says Ben Hamilton-Baillie, a street designer who [...] brought these spaces to the U.K., which now hosts more than any other country.

Related on Archinect:

Antonia Malchik on the end of walking in America

2015-08-31T18:39:00-04:00

For decades, Americans have been losing their ability, even their right, to walk. [...] there are vast blankets and folds of the country where the ability to walk – to open a door and step outside and go somewhere or nowhere without getting behind the wheel of a car – is a struggle, a fight. A risk. [...] we encourage car travel and discourage moving on foot. More than discourage it, we criminalise it where deemed necessary.

NY Mayor de Blasio's Times Square overhaul runs into massive opposition

2015-08-24T11:27:00-04:00

It’s hard to grasp his calculus. One of Mr. de Blasio’s big initiatives, Vision Zero, aims to improve pedestrian safety. Ripping up the pedestrian plazas in Times Square, restoring cars and forcing millions of people to dodge traffic again, runs headlong into his own policy. As an exasperated Tim Tompkins, the president of the Times Square Alliance, put it on Thursday: “Sure, let’s tear up Broadway — we can’t govern, manage or police our public spaces.”

More about Times Square on Archinect:

MIT's "Placelet" sensors technologize old-fashioned observation methods for placemaking

2015-08-18T19:49:00-04:00

With a $35,000 grant from the Knight Prototype Fund, [MITs Elizabeth Christoforetti] and her team are working on a project called Placelet, which will track how pedestrians move through a particular space. They’re developing a network of sensors that will track the scale and speed of pedestrians [and vehicles] over long periods of time. The sensors, [currently being tested in downtown Boston], will also track the 'sensory experience' by recording the noise level and air quality of that space.

Follow the yellow wooden road into Rotterdam's new Luchtsingel pedestrian park

2015-07-14T19:46:00-04:00

Rotterdam recently welcomed The Luchtsingel, a communal endeavor to spruce up the long-neglected Hofplein neighborhood in the heart of the city. Locally based architecture practice Zones Urbaines Sensibles (ZUS) devised The Luchtsingel in 2011. The focal point of the emerging "three-dimensional cityscape" is a nearly 400-meter wooden pedestrian bridge that was largely built from crowdsourced funds, accompanied by a network of refurbished public spaces.

"Based on the idea of Permanent Temporality, the Luchtsingel introduces a new way of [city-making]. This means using the city's evolutionary character and existing forms as a starting point. Therefore, we have developed new instruments for design, financing, and planning," said ZUS partner Elma van Boxel in a statement.

The project gained traction when ZUS set up the "I Make Rotterdam" crowdfunding campaign for the bridge. The campaign sold over 8,000 boards painted in a hard-to-ignore shade of yellow inscribed with the supporter's name...

Why Los Angeles is struggling to fix thousands of miles of sidewalks

2015-01-02T13:49:00-05:00

The city estimates that some 4,500 of its total 10,750 sidewalk miles are in disrepair. According to a 2007 USC study, the city repaired a grand total of 64 miles of sidewalks, or 1.4 percent of damaged sidewalks, improving the city’s backlog to 72 years. The reasons for this civic embarrassment go back even longer than 72 years. They are twofold. One is political, the other arboreal.

Prince Charles calls to reclaim the streets from cars with his 10-point “master plan”

2014-12-22T13:45:00-05:00

Prince Charles urges architects to place pedestrians “at the centre of the design process” as part of a 10-point “master plan” he has devised for the developments of towns and cities. He also calls for many street signs to be removed. “Slow” and “Reduce Speed Now” signs, for example, should be taken down and replaced by features such as squares, bends and trees that “naturally” encourage motorists to reduce their speed.

Tulsa Mayor Hasn’t Ruled Out a Sidewalk Next to New Flagship Park

2014-12-12T13:54:00-05:00

Earlier this week we reported on Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett’s decision to prevent construction of a sidewalk on Riverside Drive that would provide walking access to a major new city park. Local advocates say the lack of a sidewalk will make the park harder to get to on foot, and they don’t buy the mayor’s explanation that people will be safer if there’s no sidewalk tempting them to walk.

"Residents who want the sidewalk have charged that the mayor nixed it after wealthy homeowners complained that it would attract “undesirables.”"

50 years of gentrification: will all our cities turn into 'deathly' Canberra?

2014-12-12T13:22:00-05:00

The Economist Intelligence Unit puts Melbourne in first place, followed by Vienna, Vancouver, Toronto, Adelaide and Calgary. There is never any mention, on any list, of London or New York, Paris or Hong Kong. There are no liveable cities where you might actually want to live. [...] Liveability, it seems, is defined by a total absence of risk or chance, pleasure or surprise. It is an index of comfort, a guide to places where you can go safe in the knowledge you’ll never be far from a Starbucks.

Mayor Vows to Make LA More Pedestrian-Friendly

2014-10-01T11:33:00-04:00

Calling Los Angeles streets a “front door to the world and the place where public life and private enterprise connect,” Mayor Eric Garcetti and the city Department of Transportation released a strategic plan Monday aimed at making them safer and more accessible by 2025. The 61-page report, titled “Great Streets for Los Angeles,” looks toward ending all pedestrian-related deaths, improving safety around public schools and changing the timing of streetlights [...]

Included in the plan are initiatives to help the city become more bike-friendly, such as adding more bike corrals on the street and racks to city buses. This comes on the heels of new, state-wide legislation recently signed by Gov. Jerry Brown aimed to increase bike safety. Assembly Bill 1193 will create standards for protected bike lanes, or cycle tracks. Senate Bill 1183 will provide funding for bike lanes and bike infrastructure through a vehicle surcharge.

While long considered an exclusively automobile-oriented city, LA has become increasingly friendly for bicyclists and pedestrians in recent years. Actually, USA Today recently ranked the city #28 out of the 50 best cities for biking, right after Oakland (and before Miami). Part of the increase in bike riding in the city has been because of the new green bike lanes that have been put in place over the last few years. The bright green color, however, has received some criticism: an LA Times op-ed published in 2012 bemoaned the a...