The Bloomberg administration is pushing to rezone 73 blocks of Midtown East to create bigger, taller office buildings, and there are quite a few people who are worried that jamming more people into the neighborhood is not a good idea. Chief among the concerns is the state of public space in Midtown East?there isn't much of it and what's there needs to be improved. So to address these concerns, the city (in this case, Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden and DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn) has put together a team of consultants that will hold three public workshops to garner ideas in order to revamp the streetscape and "make the area a desirable place to live, work, pass through and visit."
The consultant team consists of Jonathan Rose Company, Gehl Architects, and Skanska, and the goal is to make the streets less congested and more enjoyable with landscaping and public seating. All of the findings will be published in the creatively-name East Midtown Public Realm Vision Plan, to be released this fall around the same time that the Midtown East rezoning ULURP heads into the home stretch.
· NYC DOT, City Planning and Council Member Garodnick Announce Community Planning Process for East Midtown Streetscape [nyc.gov]
· Midtown East Rezoning [Curbed]
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