APA's New York Metro Chapter has played a prominent role in both civic and professional efforts in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and is continuing to provide its planning experience and technical expertise to ongoing rebuilding initiatives in New York City and the region.
In response to the LMDC’s unveiling of the nine concepts for rebuilding the WTC site, Ethel Sheffer, the Metro Chapter’s President, prepared a testimony for the public hearing conducted by the LMDC on January 13th.
Joint Press Release: New York New Visions, Imagine New York And Civic Alliance Call For City To Play Larger Role In Future Of Lower Manhattan
APA Metro Chapter's Executive Committee has created a Task Force on Lower Manhattan Planning co- chaired by Ethel Sheffer, Chapter President and Bonnie Harken, Chair of the Waterfront Committee. This Task Force is charged with leading the Chapter's role in the next phase in the rebuilding process. In preparation for this phase, the task force reviewed the Public Input Process and Timetable issued by the Port Authority and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) and submitted its concerns and recommendations for improvements in a letter to the LMDC. Also, the Task Force forwarded to PA and LMDC Moving Lower Manhattan, a white paper released by the APA Metro Chapter Transportation Committee. The paper provides a series of principles, concepts and potentials projects which should be incorporated into the plan for Lower Manhattan.
In response to the LMDC’s unveiling of the nine concepts for rebuilding the WTC site, Ethel Sheffer, the Metro Chapter’s President, prepared a testimony for the public hearing conducted by the LMDC on January 13th.
Bringing together business, labor, civic and community leaders, the Regional Plan Association convened a Civic Alliance at the end of September 2001 to help create the best possible comprehensive plan for rebuilding Lower Manhattan.
The Civic Alliance draws representatives from a cross-section of groups now numbering over 85 members, including the Alliance for Downtown New York, Association for a Better New York, American Institute of Architects, Community Board #1, Empire State Development Corporation, JM Kaplan Fund, Municipal Arts Society, Natural Resources Defense Council, New York Building Congress, NYC Partnership, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Real Estate Board of New York, and all major metropolitan universities.
APA's Metro Chapter has participated in the Civic Alliance since its opening meeting on October 1 and was honored to host the first public event of Alliance members at our conference "WTC and Beyond" last December. Initially the Alliance provided a forum for sharing information and for discussions of principles to guide the reconstruction of the WTC district. By late last year eight working committee had been established to address key issues, such as transportation, regulatory questions and economic development. Members of the Civic Alliance have also begun to meet with key decision makers, such as the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation, the Port Authority, and the Governor. Letters have been sent on issues ranging from congressional appropriations for rebuilding to a recreation bubble for downtown families.
Since the beginning of 2002, the Civic Alliance has begun a participatory process to help achieve public consensus on the goals and outcomes of the rebuilding efforts.
On December 13th through December 18th the Alliance conducted an intensive planning charette, which included one and a half days of background lectures and site visits, three full days of workshops and a half a day of final presentations. The final report is available on the Civic Alliance website.
Immediately following the events of September 11th, the NYC Partnership and Real Estate Board of New York established a NYC Rebuild Task Force to coordinate a broad range of private sector resources to provide advice and counsel on key rebuilding matters. An Infrastructure Task Force was the top priority and began working in September with immediate assistance on actions necessary to stabilize day-to-day functioning for workers and residents of Lower Manhattan. By the end of September, a Planning Task Force of leading local design professionals also began to take shape to address the longer term rebuilding questions.
New York New Visions (NYNV) was initially designed as an intensive, interdisciplinary, three-month effort to produce broad-based planning and design principles as a "framework for rebuilding" by the end of 2001. Based on the success of that work, the organizations in NYNV have agreed to continue to work together in 2002 to advocate those principles and act as a pro bono professional resource to rebuilding efforts. Imagine New York invited the public back again to discuss the nine new plans in facilitated roundtable dialogues. You can view the results of this round of facilitated discussions on the Imagine New York website.
APA's New York Metro Chapter was one of the first participants of this broad-based coalition of 21 planning and design organizations including planners, architects, consulting and structural engineers, graphic artists, landscape architects, and urban designers. Metro Chapter was instrumental in helping the coalition set up a formal structure and bylaws. The Metro Chapter has been elected by the coalition to its Executive Committee during 2002 and hopes to lead NYNV's policies on comprehensive planning and a participatory process.
The Coalition's purpose is not to propose specific designs, but to explore the key issues that public and private sector leaders should consider in the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan. To quote from the Statement of Purpose: "As a collective of leading local design professionals, we believe that achieving consensus will require decision makers to have at their disposal the full range of questions that this event has raised. Our purpose is to help identify those questions, and in so doing help establish the framework that will allow planning, design and construction to move forward while allowing concerned constituencies to have a voice."
NYNV issued "Principles for the Rebuilding of Lower Manhattan" which summarizes the work of its organizations and committees on rebuilding issues related to planning and design of the built environment. The report was the basis for many of the principles in the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's blueprint for the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan.
NYNV has already begun advocating the principles in the report with key decision makers, the public and the press. These outreach efforts will continue throughout the year. The Executive Committee and each of the working committees are continuing to meet as appropriate to their advocacy role. They will assist as a professional resource in the evaluation of alternatives, proposals, plans and designs for the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan.
NYNV's report is posted at www.newyorknewvisions.org. Committee meetings are open to all New York Metro Chapter or New Jersey Chapter APA members. Another way to contribute to NYNV is by sharing your resources, such as meeting rooms, reproduction equipment, or computer capabilities. If you are interested in contributing to printing costs, joining one of the committees or contributing resources, please contact Mary Findlen, Chapter Administrator, with information about how to reach you and a description of how you would like to participate.
The Metro Chapter's Executive Committee is committed to ensuring public participation in the planning process for rebuilding. APA joined forces with the Municipal Art Society in a network of civic and community organizations to establish a meaningful process for sharing visions about memorializing the WTC destruction and building the City's future.
Imagine New York is a project designed to make sure that the public has a say in the future of the World Trade Center site through a democratic process. Organized by the Municipal Art Society and its partners, the project intends to bring together the visions of all those who have been affected by the tragedy and ensure that their voices contribute to any decision-making regarding the future of the site.
People in neighborhoods and towns throughout the region were invited to participate in workshops where they voiced their opinions, ideas and visions for the redevelopment of the site. In winter and spring 2002, Imagine New York held 230 workshops throughout the metro region to solicit ideas about the future of the WTC site, Lower Manhattan, and communities throughout the region. More than 3,000 people participated in the workshops. Through these workshops, as well as via the internet and the mail, 19,000 ideas were gathered.
The Imagine New York Summary Report, released in June 2002, contains 49 vision statements on how to move forward from September 11th. The vision statements - written by 300 participants at the Imagine New York Summit, based on the ideas generated in workshops - reflect the range of ideas that have been on our minds since September 11th, as well as the diverse perspectives and opinions of participants.
Many members of Metro Chapter participated in the organization and facilitation of the workshops, as well as the preparation of the final report. Members of the Chapter also served on the Steering Committee. The Imagine New York Summary report is now available at www.imaginenewyork.org. The web site also contains a new "Idea Gallery", in which all 19,000 ideas can be viewed.