reNEWable times square

Last year the Times Square Alliance held a design competition called reNEWable Times Square. The intention of this public art installation was to draw attention to and aestheticize the newly opened pedestrian plazas that were created by closing portions of Broadway. These plazas were part of a pilot program by the NYC DOT that has since been adopted and is currently being implemented and expanded.

The purpose of the competition was to raise awareness about the pilot program and to garner support for more permanent improvements to these new pedestrian plazas. Frankly, I find it difficult to imagine some of these spaces as they were; with cramped sidewalks and hazardous roadways nearby; difficult because on beautiful days like the ones we’ve had this week, the plazas are thronged with people coming and going, sitting and eating, and of course relaxing.

These plazas also provide additional staging grounds for art exhibits and installations as well as pop-up shops, food vendors and performers. Virtually overnight the plazas have become a vital part of the streets life; making safe havens for pedestrians and laying the groundwork for a shift in infrastructural planning that is surely underway.

The images below are not of the winning (and since installed) submission, but rather the one that should have won (just kidding). The design narrative follows:

As “the crossroads of the world” Times Square is a constantly activated, ever-changing entertainment spectacle. People come from around the world to see, be seen, engage and be entertained. Times Square literally teems with people coming and going all tracing their own paths. With the advent of NYC DOT’s “Green Light for Midtown” New Yorkers and tourist alike were able to lay claim and spill into previously treacherous portions of Broadway.

Broadway’s transformation from a vehicular to a pedestrian zone is one that should be celebrated in the vernacular of roads. Every American is familiar with roadway demarcations indicating crosswalks and separating traffic flows. These stripes in the design intentionally mimic standard DOT pavement paint and transition in scale from the narrow lines that separate traffic to the bolder lines beckoning pedestrian to cross; mirroring Broadways own metamorphosis.

Strongly directional and vibrantly colored lines follow the imagined paths of visitors and inhabitants. These paths overlap and intersect creating suggested nodes of activity culminating in the densest area of intersection on the blocks between 45^th and 46^thStreets. The design enlivens, engages, and sets the stage for the continuous street show that is Times Square.

site plan

plan enlargement

vignette

vignette

aerial perspective

All plans and renderings are the sole property of the owner.

corktown collage

Last fall a took a trip to Detroit with friend and fellow landscape architect Erik Martig. We went to experience the city in its then current state, and document what we saw; our impressions of the city. After several months of living with the photos we took, and the idea of Detroit,I began to write about the experience and map some of the neighborhoods we studies with photographic transects. This is the first product of that developing and unfolding process.

The above sketch is a layering of the current building massing, existing road layout, emergent tree canopy, and aerial photo of the neighborhood superimposed on a photograph taken within the neighborhood.