Event Pass Information Event Pass TypePriceQuantity In-Person - Student with Valid IDFREE 0 1 2 3 4 Zoom - Student with Valid IDFREE 0 1 2 3 4 In-Person - General PublicFREE 0 1 2 3 4 Zoom - General PublicFREE 0 1 2 3 4 Zoom Ticket - Dutch AttendeeFREE 0 1 2 3 4 In-Person - AIA Member (not AIANY)FREE 0 1 2 3 4 Zoom Ticket - AIA Member (not AIANY)FREE 0 1 2 3 4 Event Details People First For Lower Manhattan is part of It Happened Here's Framing the Future series. Over the 2025 Fourth of July weekend, It Happened Here is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding of New York City with a day of programming devoted to each century of the city’s life. On the fifth and last day, we'll look at New York in the 21st century with the Framing the Future series of panels, which explores the multiple urban challenges and opportunities ahead. This program focuses on the streets and public spaces of New York’s oldest and most historic neighborhood, the Financial District. Several of the FiDi’s streets, dating from the 17th century, have been recognized as Historic Districts on the National Register of Historic Places. While through most of the 20th century the neighborhood was seen as solely a commercial area and hub of world finance, Lower Manhattan is now home to 75,000 residents, sees over 300,000 workers daily, and attracts more than 9 million tourists annually. Leaders in urban planning and government affairs will discuss the neighborhood’s complex urban challenges and how to enhance pedestrian mobility over the cars and trucks that currently congest its historic streets. The goal is to make all movement safer, easier, and cleaner towards a more enjoyable experience that can transform the area into one of the world's most attractive places to live, work and visit. Make Way for Lower Manhattan reimagines our public space for everyone. Speakers: Ben Furnas, Executive Director, Transportation Alternatives John Massengale, AIA CNU, Architect & Urban Designer, Massengale & Co LLC Alice Shay, Principal, Buro Happold Emily Weidenhof, Assistant Commissioner, Public Realm, NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) Moderator: Catherine McVay Hughes, Board of Directors, Battery Park City Authority; Lower Manhattan Development Corporation; Lower Manhattan Historical Association; Financial District Neighborhood Association; South Street Seaport Museum; Princeton Climate Institute; President's Council, CERES More Events in This Series: July 7, 8:30–11:30am ET: It Happened Here: NetherlandsNow: Framing the Future July 7, 3:30–4:30pm ET: It Happened Here: At the Water's Edge: Resiliency in Lower Manhattan About the Speakers: Ben Furnas is a leading expert in urban sustainability, climate, and infrastructure. He currently heads Transportation Alternatives, advocating for safer, more equitable streets in New York City. Previously, he served in the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability, where he helped advance Vision Zero, building decarbonization, and fleet electrification. A graduate of Cornell University and NYU Law, Furnas has worked across public, academic, and nonprofit sectors to shape climate policy rooted in urban equity, and was Executive Director of The 2030 Project: A Cornell Climate Initiative. John Massengale is an architect and urban designer in New York City. A member of the FDNA Make Way for Lower Manhattan team, he is the author of Street Design, The Secret to Great Cities and Towns (“the best book ever written about designing streets”), and New York 1900, Metropolitan Architecture and Urbanism 1890-1915, with Robert A.M. Stern and Gregory Gilmartin. Massengale is the Chair of the New York City chapter of the Congress for New Urbanism and is also on the Board of the City Club of New York, where he is the Co-Chair of the Urban Design Committee. Alice Shay is a Principal at Buro Happold and leads urban design and strategic planning projects with the firm’s Cities team. Educated at Brown University and MIT, Shay brings insights for the delivery of a high-quality public realm, infrastructure adaptive reuse, management of large interdisciplinary teams, and innovation processes for urban development challenges. At Buro Happold, Shay managed the Brooklyn Marine Terminal Master Plan, Reimagine the Canals Task Force and Vision Plan, NYC Green Economy Action Plan, EJNYC Study, NYC Film & TV Industry Study, and Make Way for Lower Manhattan. Shay is an Instructor with the Cornell University Department of City and Regional Planning. Emily Weidenhof is Assistant Commissioner at NYC’s Department of Transportation, where she works with community groups across the five boroughs to re-imagine and transform streets into public spaces. She helped institutionalize the key city programs of Open Streets and Open Restaurants and has overseen projects such as 34th Avenue in Queens and Brooklyn’s Bike Boulevards. Educated in architecture and urban design at Penn State and Columbia Universities, she brings a people-centered approach to city streets. Catherine McVay Hughes is a community activist who currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Battery Park City Authority, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the Lower Manhattan Historical Association, the Financial District Neighborhood Association, the South Street Seaport Museum, the Princeton Climate Institute, and is on the President's Council of CERES. Educated at Princeton University and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, she is the former Chair of the Manhattan Community Board 1.