TOPIC

Public Space

Entry Level

Theaters and concert halls are redesigning their interiors to entice new audiences and shore up revenue. Can performance spaces elevate everyday life, too?

State of Play

New York City's only adventure playground is a beloved destination. But it's also a proposition to make room for free play across the city, from street to schoolyard.

Where Can the Public Bathrooms Go in New York City?

Creating 3,000 more places to go can be transformative for people's dignity and the quality of the public realm. But actually implementing a citywide restroom network requires solutions that address each neighborhood's specific needs.

21st Century Monument

Where a controversial sculpture stood, a monument to Harriet Tubman offers a new narrative and new directions for creating sites of collective memory.

Turning the Tide

Where can queer and trans community flourish, if not at Riis Beach? Yet current plans for its future don't account for the people it has sustained for decades.

Rockaway, Revisited

New projects are bringing more people and attention to the Rockaway Peninsula, but ten years after Hurricane Sandy, the work of building resilient infrastructure remains woefully incomplete.

Street Ballet Opera

An ambitious new opera plumbs the humanity and contemporary relevance of two mythic figures of New York City: Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses.

Circulation Desk

Second Chances

Recent books explore the potential in underused and overdetermined spaces, from mid-century American city centers and suburban shopping malls to the current glut of vacant retail storefronts and offices.

Well-Placed

Staying the Distance

For members of New York City's Arab diasporas, protesting oppression back home can provide both solace in community and an unsettling reminder of displacement.

Story of a Street

A 1.3-mile-long pedestrian promenade in Queens is a lodestar for planners, a lifeline for many residents, and an albatross to others.