Designing Climate Corridors: Re-envisioning Urban Arterials in New York City

Urban arterials in New York City are long and wide roads that carry large amounts of vehicular traffic through neighborhoods. Some predate colonial settlement; many also exemplify historically racist city planning efforts that divided communities and displaced families. Despite recent efforts to install bus and bike lanes, lower speed limits, and add green infrastructure, dozens of these major roadway corridors across the five boroughs remain unsafe, unhealthy, inefficient, and unsustainable. Vehicles speed, pollute, and jostle in a street space where on average 80% of the public right-of-way is reserved for private vehicles, even in areas where a majority of nearby residents do not own cars. Today, the amount of paved roadbed belonging to New York City’s arterials is equivalent to more than 10 Central Parks. More than 60% of all traffic fatalities happen along them.

Designing Climate Corridors will discuss opportunities to rethink this immense publicly-owned land between neighborhoods for climate action, community cohesion, and public health.

Informed by the Municipal Art Society’s ongoing project, Greener Corridors for a More Resilient City, as well as design provocations reimagining the right-of-way provided by Columbia University GSAPP’s Urban Design Program, this event aims to inspire planners, designers, policymakers, and communities to re-evaluate arterial corridors. We'll also discuss, where appropriate, how to re-envision them as more hospitable and dynamic spaces that meet local needs.

Speakers:
Stephen Albonesi, Senior Project Manager Planning and Urban Design, The Municipal Art Society
Wendy Andringa, ASLA, Founder, Assemblage Landscape Architecture
Tiffany-Ann Taylor, VP Transportation, RPA
Zach Youngerman, Director of Resiliency Planning & Management, NYC DOT

Moderator:
Kaja Kühl, AICP, Founder, youarethecity; Adjunct Associate Professor, Columbia University; Adjunct Associate Professor, City College of New York Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture

About the Speakers:
Stephen Albonesi is a Senior Project Manager for Planning & Urban Design at The Municipal Art Society, where he leads the organization’s research on improving the design and management of New York City’s public realm. Prior to MAS, Albonesi helped create and launch Localize, a New York-based tech startup that provides neighborhood information for homebuyers and renters. He previously served as Senior Consultant at Appleseed, working on economic development and transportation planning projects across the city. 

Wendy Andringa has over 19 years of experience designing, managing, and overseeing the implementation of award-winning landscapes in the New York metropolitan region. She excels at coordinating multidisciplinary teams and complex processes for public-private partnerships, municipalities, and development teams. She led projects in higher education, health care, public parks & plazas, waterfront parks, and mixed use developments. She has taught at the CCNY Spitzer School of Architecture, Columbia University GSAPP, and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF). Andringa is currently an ASLA-NY Board Member, founder of the ASLA-NY Plant Research Group, and a member of the NY Chapter Climate Action Committee.

Tiffany-Ann Taylor is the Vice President for Transportation at the Regional Plan Association (RPA). Prior to working at RPA, she served as Deputy Director of Freight Programs, Education and Research for the Freight Mobility unit at the New York City Department of Transportation and as an Assistant Vice President at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Taylor has led transformative passenger transportation projects, freight policy, and truck safety and compliance initiatives for NYC. Prior to her time with the City, Taylor focused on suburban and regional planning efforts while working for the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development & Planning on Long Island where her work centered on passenger transportation, open space, and economic development.

Zach Youngerman is a third-generation New Yorker and a city planner with nearly 15 years of experience in urban environmental stewardship, climate resilience, and public outreach gained working in post-Katrina New Orleans and New York and Toronto. As project manager for NYC's $1.5B green infrastructure program he coordinated with City agencies on siting green infrastructure. More recently, he assisted NYS DEC on creating a flood resilience guidebook for Hudson River parks. A board member of City as Living Lab, he muses occasionally about the public realm on Urban Omnibus, The Boston Globe, and Medium.

Kaja Kühl is an urban designer and the principal of youarethecity, a WBE certified research and design practice based in Brooklyn, NY. She has extensive architecture, urban design, and planning experience from large-scale urban systems and policies to civic engagement and circular material practices. Her design work and writing have appeared in Dezeen, Oculus, Landscape Architect Magazine, Volume, AD, the Venice Architecture Biennale, Center for Architecture, and Urban Omnibus.