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summer workshops

Streets for People

May 3, 2021 – May 14, 2021

Across New York City

Fabrizio Prati

and

Majed Abdulsamad

Research Question

Streets make up the largest network of public spaces in any city. And with 70 percent of the global population living in cities by 2050, it is imperative that these spaces be planned, designed, and implemented to be safe, healthy, useful, and sustainable for everyone. This workshop focused on three streets in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn to examine how we might shift street design parameters from the historical focus on automobile access, travel time, and flow to instead focus on access, safety, and mobility for a variety of users. Streets have always been hybrid but concerns with environmental quality, economic benefit, public health, and user experience have, in recent years, compelled revised approaches to street design and planning. This workshop introduced terms and representations of street design, examined case studies of global policies and programs, learned about metrics collection for project evaluations, and participated in workshops seeking alternatives ways of embracing life on the street.

Overview

STUDENT WORK

Chao Chang
Columbia Ave and W 97th St NYC, NY

Ishita Ghosh
110 St and Amsterdam Ave, NYC, NY

Ryan Hansen
Broome St, NYC, NY

Jules Kleitman
62nd St and 3rd Ave, NYC, NY

Chrysothemi Kouloumentas
Athinon St, Kalamata, Greece

Moses Levich
82nd St from 37th to Roosevelt Ave, Jackson Heights, Queens, NY

Sarah Mawdsley
W 104 St between Broadway Ave and Amsterdam Ave, NYC, NY

Lucia Song
Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA

Wanjing Zhang
W 116th St, NYC, NY

Methodology

Week 1: Research
 Monday: Introduction and Opening Lecture 2 hours with 10 mins break

Speaker: Fabrizio Prati, NACTO, What and Why is NACTO?
Topic: The history of streets, background on the Global Street Design Guide, street users, and how to measure city streets.

 Wednesday: Site Visit 1 
Location: Broadway Corridor (from Times Sq. to Union Sq.)

Broadway street redesign
Times Square transformation
14th Street Corridor
Janette Sadik Kahn, presentation; Kate Mckinnon, War On Cars Activity:
Observation and documentation of permanent network and interim street transformation
The street at 95 cm: using the NACTO-GDCI Streets for Kids periscope

 Friday: Lecture 2 
Speaker: Emily Weidenhof, NYC, Department of Transportation (TBC)

NYDOT work plan and methodologies
Open Streets, 2020 - NYDOT pandemic response
Interim and pop-up interventions, local and global

Weekend
DIY: Walk, Ride, Cross, Run, Talk, Pause. Document street and street life near you. Good, bad, and in-between.

Week 2: Application

 Monday: Deliverable Introduction and Site Visit 2 

Topics include: metrics collection, measuring streets, gauging experience
Location:
- Steinway and Broadway, Queens
- Atlantic and Washington ave., Brooklyn
Activity: metrics collection on site
Information: NYC Open Data Map, fatalities and injuries heatmap/Queens

 Wednesday: Lecture 3 and Deliverable Check-In 

Speaker: Justin Davidson, NY Magazine and Curbed (TBC)
Topics include: Street life, politics, cultures
Reading: Justin Davidson, Magnetic City, A Walking Companion to NY, excerpts DUE: E-Book Due

 Friday: Pin-up and Presentations with Outside Reviewers  

Output

The final research was published in an e-book format.

Other 2021 workshops

Envisioning Climate: A Virtual Reality Workshop	Vanessa Keith, Andrew Homick		May 17, 2021 – May 28, 2021
Other Natures	Michael Wang	Across New York City	May 17, 2021 – May 28, 2021
Building Biography: A Living Archive of Columbia GSAPP	Caitlyn Campbell	Across New York City	May 12, 2021 – May 26, 2021
Pushing past 2020: Looking for Equitable Solutions to Post Covid New York City	Victor Body-Lawson	Across New York City	May 3, 2021 – May 17, 2021
Multigenerational Housing for New York City	Hilary Sample	Across New York City	May 3, 2021 – May 17, 2021
Model Fictions	Joshua Jordan	Across New York City	May 5, 2021 – May 17, 2021
An Atlas of Dust	Jorge Otero-Pailos	Across New York City	May 3, 2021 – May 14, 2021
New Paradigms of Residual Space	Douglas Woodward, Sybil Wa	Across New York City	May 3, 2021 – May 14, 2021