Creating a New Heart and Soul for Midtown, NYC
Social Life Project has written an extraordinary reflection on the future of Central Business Districts. Ethan Kent, co-author and executive director of PlacemakingX, introduces the text as an open call to reinvent US Central Business Districts to be Central Social Districts.
“The placemaking movement,” Kent says, “in many ways grew out of work in Midtown NYC in the 70s and 80s by William H. Whyte, Fred Kent and Project for Public Spaces, who then spread their successful approaches with Rockefeller Center, Bryant Park, the Port Authority Bus Terminal and eventually Times Square, to help bring disinvested Central Business Districts to life around the country and globally.
Once again Central Business Districts are facing a challenge to compete as places people want to be. Offering an inspiring and detailed plan, the Social Life Project says it's time to take social life-led public space strategies to a new level, and start again with Midtown Manhattan.”
Read the introduction below and follow the link to read the full text.
Photo: Ronny Rondon/Unsplash
Introduction: Midtown Manhattan is in trouble
What is arguably the world’s best-known office district – and a symbol of New York’s vitality to the world – is at risk of losing its lifeblood: its office workers. Post-COVID work changes mean that many office workers don’t have to come to Midtown, and improved work environments that are closer to where they live – whether at home or in new offices along the West Side Manhattan or Brooklyn waterfronts – offer better places without the commute. Commercial office and retail vacancies are stubbornly high, and foot traffic is down.
This is a problem for Midtown because without sufficient numbers of people shopping in the stores, relaxing in the social spaces, and visiting the landmarks, a place gradually dies. It falls into a state of inactivity and neglect and underperforms in ways that are necessary for a city to thrive such as by attracting visitors, residents and business. With Midtown being the heart of one of the greatest cities in the world, we should not just sit back and watch as this happens.
Owners of office buildings are talking about converting to other uses, including residential. The ones that are succeeding have rethought and re-designed their buildings and added amenities. Some have also created flexible, vibrant, and people-friendly spaces on the inside of their buildings. We see an opportunity to do the same outside of these Midtown buildings, especially along major avenues, at intersections, crosstown streets and along 59th Street and Central Park. Restoring a sense of place draws workers and other people to enjoy the vast resources that Midtown offers.
Photo: Thierry Ambraisse/Unsplash