TOPIC

Public Space

New City Critics

Call for Applications: New City Critics 2026

Dancing About Architecture

How have dancers and their movements shaped the built environment of New York — and how has the city shaped them in return?

New City Critics

A Labor of Love

Up a marble staircase, in the attic of City Hall, a trio of civil servants steward an eclectic archive of city objects.

New City Critics

The Plaza Paradox

In the shadow of the Flatiron, a writer spends an hour conducting her own public space audit.

The Artist Is Present

What happens when artists embed within city government? For ten years, New York’s Public Artists in Residence have been building bridges and breaking down walls between the civic and the public.

City Habitats

Nooks and Crannies

Local birds evicted from their usual habitats find themselves nesting and hunting atop skyscrapers, power lines, and traffic lights.

Safer Spaces

With the new mayor promising to deliver “community safety,” one well-established city program charts a path through new public spaces and long-needed repairs at the city’s most under-resourced NYCHA developments.

Designing Mamdani’s New York

At the start of a new mayoral administration promising an urban transformation, eight practitioners discuss architecture’s role in shaping the social democratic city.

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.

New City Critics

No Rest for the Whimsy

Multiple spins on an elaborate underwater-themed carousel reveal the importance of wonder in the public realm.