From video-enabled visual interpretation to 3D audio effects, smartphone wayfinding apps have a lot to offer Blind users. But these new features are no substitute for public infrastructure — digital or otherwise — that accounts for nonvisual navigation of the built environment.

From small and ubiquitous markers to massive bespoke steel numerals, this longstanding Greenpoint signage company helps New Yorkers navigate the city.

As local newspapers dwindle, an artist revives New York’s classic newsstand to collect and circulate more diverse stories about immigration.

An artist and a historian talk trees: What they mean, and what it takes to get city-dwellers to see them clearly.

People returning to city life after time in prison will soon be able to find help at some branch libraries. How can designers help librarians create life-saving connections?

People trying to stay connected to their loved ones in New York's jails and prisons must travel great distances and navigate intimidating rules and requirements.

For doctors trying to provide mental health care to people who are incarcerated or detained by the New York City Department of Corrections, city jails pose a challenge — and provide an opportunity.

The NYPD vaunts crime mapping technologies from CompStat maps to a vast networked surveillance infrastructure. Who benefits?

28 maps track the networks of consultancy through which CompStat's architects spread the gospel — often for a tidy fee.

A huge range of emergent technologies give police new ways to gather data and surveil. What's on the market?