Environment
What Goes Around
A high-volume transfer station, a model municipal soil bank, and a cutting-edge soil washer: Three area sites illustrate the values, costs, and benefits that shape the flow of recycled soil in and around the city.
The Reefs Beneath the Piers
Where maritime industry once thrived, and where a tunnel was thwarted, New York’s submarine species make homes in the shadow of waterfront development.
The Future of Infrastructure and Place
What is the path forward to contend with historic and contemporary harms of urban highways across the country, and to honor the needs and desires of contemporary residents? Insights from a conversation on the Cross Bronx, the BQE, and the road to more just transportation infrastructures.
The Midnight Shift
A small task force listens in on an obscure city soundtrack to maintain a century-old water system.
From Creek to Fountain
Polluted and repressed, the buried streams of Flushing Creek will once again see the light of day.
Unsettled Ground
The city’s construction projects don’t just rise skyward. They dig downward, displacing massive amounts of material whose journey in and out of the city few ever see.
A Question About Tomorrow
As goes Ravenswood, so goes New York’s energy future. So what will it take to bring a just transition to the city’s largest power plant?
The Tempest
As midsummer nights get hotter and wetter, outdoor performance venues and workers are adapting.
Meet the 2025-2026 New City Critics Fellows
New City Critics fellows will turn their critical gaze over the city.
Networked Nursery
Preserving and propagating the city's autochthonous flora, Staten Island's Greenbelt Native Plant Center is at the center of an unseen infrastructure of ecological restoration and climate adaptation.