TOPIC
Public Space
Support New City Critics!
Announcing the launch of a campaign to create a new fellowship program empowering fearless and diverse voices to challenge the ways we design, plan, and develop our cities.
When Government Came to Main Street
The Bronx County Building embodies the New Deal era's ideals of robust government presence in everyday life, for better and worse.
Swim Lessons
Pools are sites for recreation and fun. But as much as any public space in New York, they also carry the weight of the city's complex histories of race and place.
Poetry for the People, in Public Spaces
During a year of confinement and circumscription, the people behind Queensbound have been working to keep the borough connected through site-specific poetry.
Gimme Shelter
Photographs of Prospect Park’s unsanctioned constructions simultaneously suggest traces of past settlement and the start of a new civilization. Behind the scenes is a struggle for ecological succession among salamanders, kindergartners, and park management.
You’re Not Going to Tell Me When to Go Home
What happened on the ground during the summer protests in NYC? Participants describe a temporary landscape of kinship and resistance — and a template for another city.
The World Inverted
Kate Papacosma takes us on a tour through the expansive meadows and hidden precincts of Prospect Park, reflecting on its importance as a place of healing in a wounded city.
Where Are the Public Bathrooms in New York City?
With too few facilities, and many in urgent need of repair or renovation, New York has a big public bathroom problem. But the city's parks, plazas, POPS, and more hold clues to overhauling its network of relief.
Public Risks on Private Shores
Along New York City’s waterfront, development has spurred the creation of new public spaces regulated down to the level of tree plantings and bicycle parking. Why aren’t resilience measures mandated in a similar way?
Accessibility, Augmented
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.