The Municipal Art Society of New York

You’re invited to a Public Space Potluck at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, Queens, hosted by MAS, Design Trust for Public Space, and Open House New York. Join us tomorrow at 5:30 PM & bring a dish to share!

RSVP here: http://mas.org/events/public-space-potluck-socrates-sculpture-park/

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our forum this morning, "Expanding Capacity and Improving Penn Station"!

A special thank you to Elizabeth Goldstein from The Municipal Art Society of New York, Petra Messick from Amtrak, Foster Nichols from WSP, Sean Fitzpatrick from Metropolitan Transportation Authority - MTA, and Jeremy Colangelo-Bryan from NJ TRANSIT for their participation in today's events.

As one panelist said this morning, today's conversation was just the start in improving transit in the region for riders — now and in the future.

A full recording of the event will be available on our site soon.

Expanding Capacity and Improving Penn Station Regional Plan Association (RPA) and the Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) invite you to join us to hear from representatives at Amtrak, NJ Transit, and the MTA about possibilities for expanding capacity at New York Penn Station.

Join us this weekend as we delve into the history, architecture, and stories of NYC’s coastal neighborhoods. MAS Tours | New York City’s oldest walking tour program, since 1956

Saturday 8/17 “Riverside Drive, Part 1”: Winding up the western coast of Manhattan, Riverside Drive has more than just sweeping views of the Hudson River and the Palisades. We will visit numerous religious institutions, a Beaux Arts fraternity house, a resting place for a U.S. President, and a memorial to New York’s Bravest. While passing through multiple historic districts, you will view statues honoring larger than life New Yorkers, a marble mansion whose prohibition era tunnels lead to the river, and a lost art museum. Look for Part 2 in the coming months.

Sunday 8/18 “Welcome to Brighton Beach”: Known locally as Little Odessa, Brighton Beach has a long and richly-cultured history of being home to immigrants resettling from Eastern Europe and Asia. Learn how an area developed as a family playground by the sea, filled with hotels, bathhouses, and vaudeville theaters, then gave way to a middle class neighborhood of Jewish families relocating from neighborhoods around the City and around the world. Hear the stories of those who lived and worked here and see why this lively community continues to attract those looking to prosper in their new country.

🔗 Learn more about MAS Tours, view the calendar, and buy tickets here: https://www.mas.org/event-type/tour/

🏙️ Led by expert guides with deep knowledge and passion for architecture, art, urban history, preservation, neighborhoods, and street life.

Last week's Closer LOOK program featured experts in housing, land use law, and development to discuss potential outcomes of recent city and state housing initiatives, including the lifting of the residential FAR cap, approval of the 485-x tax abatement program, and the proposed City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning text amendment.

MAS Senior Director of Land Use and Planning Tom Devaney moderated the discussion with Basha Gerhards (Senior Vice President of Planning, Real Estate Board of New York), Frank E. Chaney (Counsel at Rosenberg & Estis, P.C.), and Michelle de la Uz (Executive Director, Fifth Avenue Committee Inc.). We were so grateful to the fantastic panel for their thoughtful conversation, and to the audience who joined us!

Swipe to see some photos from the event. Check out more photos from the event here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBBy4K

A recording of the event will be available on our YouTube channel soon.

Join MAS and Regional Plan Association on August 5th at this in-person forum! Read more and RSVP below.

Expanding Capacity and Improving Penn Station Regional Plan Association (RPA) and the Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) invite you to join us to hear from representatives at Amtrak, NJ Transit, and the MTA about possibilities for expanding capacity at New York Penn Station.

We're hiring a graduate Planning Intern for the fall semester! The intern will work closely with the MAS Planning & Policy team on our ongoing advocacy items, including our latest research initiative, Greener Corridors for a More Resilient City.

Learn more & apply: www.mas.org/about-us/careers

This week, MAS hosted staff and interns from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign! We gave them a tour of the Greenacre Library, shared our Greener Corridors research, and had an engaging conversation about city planning, transportation infrastructure, and envisioning future streets that are cleaner, greener, healthier, and people-centered.

About Greener Corridors:
Through a series of blog posts, conversations with professionals, policymakers, and community members, and advocacy around City policies and projects, Greener Corridors seeks to flip the script on the city's busiest arterial street corridors. Considering the term “greener” through a wide lens, it asks: rather than neighborhood barriers and spaces to avoid, how can the city’s largest roads be models of sustainability, public health, social cohesion, and equity among communities along their paths? And, critically, how can it happen without displacing the very people who would benefit most? Read more here: https://www.mas.org/initiatives/greener-corridors/

About the Greenacre Reference Library:
MAS’s Greenacre Reference Library contains more than 3,500 books and reports, and approximately 2,600 MAS archival publications. The library is free and open to the public by appointment during office hours Thursday and Friday. Wi-fi, a separate study room, digital files, and individual research assistance are also available. Learn more here: https://www.mas.org/about-us/greenacre-reference-library/

Spend your weekend exploring NYC with MAS. Join us for an upcoming MAS Tour - New York City’s oldest walking tour program, since 1956.

🏙️Led by expert guides with deep knowledge of NYC architecture, art, urban history, preservation, neighborhoods, and street life.

7/27 “Park Avenue Modern”: Visit some of New York’s most iconic works of Modern architecture and learn about the evolution of Park Avenue. We will follow the route of a tour from Ada Louise Huxtable’s guide “Four Walking Tours of Modern Architecture in New York City,” jointly published by the Municipal Art Society and the Museum of Modern Art in 1961.

7/28 “Sunday Morning in Greenwich Village”: Join us for this Sunday morning exploration and see sights associated with the rich heritage of art and artists, along with some architectural oddities, and classic examples of Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, and tenement styles.

🔗Learn more about MAS Tours, view the calendar, and buy tickets here: https://www.mas.org/event-type/tour/

We're hiring! Now through August 1st, apply for the MAS Preservation Internship.

The MAS Preservation Internship is a one-year grant-funded opportunity for a historic preservation graduate student interested in exploring how the field of preservation can be transformed to center equity and inclusion, support diverse layers of history and culture in our city, and be part of the solution for confronting our climate crisis and housing crisis.



The intern will work with the MAS Planning and Policy team to advance the organization’s mission, particularly the preservation advocacy agenda, and support MAS’s Enduring Culture Initiative (ECI). As part of ECI, the intern will have a key research role, focusing on programs and policies across local, State, and Federal levels that have the potential to address historic inequities in the preservation field and support resilient communities.

Learn more and apply here: https://www.mas.org/about-us/careers

Join us! Upcoming MAS Tours | New York City’s oldest walking tour program, since 1956

7/18 “Juror’s Guide to TriBeCa Revisited - 40th Anniversary”: Published in 1984, the Guide is “filled with the history, architecture, and lore of the little-known but fascinating neighborhoods within walking distance of the courts.” Join us as we explore what they described as worthy of preservation and what developments have occurred in the last four decades.

7/20 “Skyscraper National Park: Brooklyn”: From the rugged Romanesque and Moorish Revival of the late 19th century to Art Deco and contemporary, discover the rich history of the Brooklyn hi-rise. Highlights include the Franklin Trust Bank, Long Island/New York Telephone, Abraham & Straus, and a recently-constructed group of fashionable designs by Studio Gang, Alloy, and SHoP.

7/21 “Sharjah, the Lesser-known Emirate” [Virtual tour] As spectacular as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Sharjah is much less known in the West. Besides their beautiful traditional mosques, markets, universities and palaces, Sharjah also commissions cutting edge contemporary architecture. Learn more about the city voted UNESCO’s Arab capital in 1998 and its dedication to preserving and celebrating national cultural heritage.

🔗 Learn more about MAS Tours, view the calendar, and buy tickets here: https://www.mas.org/event-type/tour/

🏙️ Led by expert guides with deep knowledge and passion for architecture, art, urban history, preservation, neighborhoods, and street life.

This Thursday! Join us at noon as we explore photographer Maureen Drennan’s exhibition "The Irresistible Pull." RSVP here: www.mas.org/events/virtual-gallery-talk-the-irresistible-pull

The photo collection is the most recent exhibition at the Doris C. and Alan J. Freedman Digital Gallery. Maureen will be in conversation with fellow photographer Susannah Ray. The pair will discuss Maureen’s process and career as a New York City born & raised photographer, and the exhibition’s exploration of Brooklyn and Queens’ industrial waterfronts.

Do you want to become a stronger advocate for your neighborhood? Today is the last day to apply for the 2024 Livable Neighborhoods Program!

Apply here: https://form.typeform.com/to/n5gvqtAG

Join MAS on Thursday, July 18th as we explore photographer Maureen Drennan's exhibition "The Irresistible Pull"

The photo collection is the most recent exhibition at the Doris C. and Alan J. Freedman Digital Gallery. Maureen will be in conversation with fellow photographer Susannah Ray.

The pair will discuss Maureen’s process and career as a New York City born & raised photographer, and the exhibition’s exploration of Brooklyn and Queens’ industrial waterfronts.

RSVP for free: www.mas.org/events/virtual-gallery-talk-the-irresistible-pull

We were so thrilled to have President Elizabeth Goldstein represent MAS at last week's Housing and Historic Preservation Roundtable co-hosted by the NYU Furman Center & Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP)!

Celebrate summer in the city with an MAS walking tour! New York City’s original walking tour program, since 1956.

6/20 "Hudson River Sunset Stroll”: Celebrate the first day of summer with a stroll along Manhattan’s Hudson River waterfront. Once a bustling harbor, then the victim of decay and dilapidation, now re-energized as a public park; the waterfront is the place to be, especially at sunset!

6/22 "Skyscraper National Park: Postmodernism in the East 50s”: From Citicorp to the AT&T Building, learn what made Postmodernism so appealing in the 1980s and how the reintroduction of masonry and conspicuous crowns helped these towers stand out from their glassy predecessors.

6/23 "Fifth Avenue Modern”: Highlights include the former Manufacturers Trust Company (1954), the first phase of Rockefeller Center (1939), and the original building of the Museum of Modern Art (1939). We will follow the route from “Four Walking Tours of Modern Architecture in New York City,” published by MAS and MoMA in 1961.

🔗Learn more about MAS Tours, view the calendar, and buy tickets here: https://www.mas.org/event-type/tour/

🏙️ Led by expert guides with deep knowledge and passion for NYC architecture, art, urban history, preservation, neighborhoods, and street life.

On Saturday, May 18, the Municipal Art Society of NY, the Joan of Arc Statue Committee, and the Riverside Park Conservancy
celebrated the Upper West Side’s Maid of Orléans—the Joan of Arc statue and her recent restoration under MAS’s Adopt-A-Monument program. Special guests included Acting French Consul General in NY Damien Laban, Council Member Gale Brewer, and MAS President Elizabeth Goldstein. Plus, performances by Broadway Star Norm Lewis, PS 84 Student Choir, Hudson Classical Theater Company, and treats for humans and dogs.

One of the most beautiful monuments in the city, Saint Joan stands proudly atop her bronze war horse, her face looking heavenward, and her detailed armor in full view. Dazzling as the monument is today, four decades ago she was among hundreds of public sculptures that suffered from the twin threats of environmental pollution and urban abuse. MAS restored the sorely damaged Joan of Arc statue in 1987 through a grant from the Grand Marnier Foundation and completed additional restorations in 2024, with a grant from the JOA Statue Committee.

Read the full dispatch here: https://www.mas.org/news/dispatch-from-the-mas-adopt-a-monument-program-for-the-love-of-joan/

Check out photos from the event below, plus view more here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBtxPv

Reminder! The Livable Neighborhoods Program (LNP) application is now open for 2024!

The Livable Neighborhoods Program was founded on the principle that community involvement is essential to city planning. Each year, LNP supports community advocates in developing the knowledge and tools needed to participate effectively in public review processes around land use issues.

Sessions range from exploring how planning decisions are made in New York City to supporting local advocacy and civic participation.

Click here to learn about LNP and view the application: https://form.typeform.com/to/n5gvqtAG

The program is free to attend and open to both individuals and organization representatives. Applications will be accepted through Monday, July 8th.

Please email [email protected] with any questions.

Join us! Upcoming MAS Tours | New York City’s oldest walking tour program, since 1956

🏙️Led by expert guides with deep knowledge and passion for NYC architecture, art, urban history, preservation, neighborhoods, and street life.

6/13 “Gowanus at Dusk”: Explore the rezoned banks of Gowanus, where history and redevelopment go hand in hand. En route, we’ll view the former “bat cave,” a landmark power station refashioned by Herzog & De Mueron into a center for artists and fabricators, stroll the first of many upcoming waterfront promenades, and see the remains of industrial complexes where tin cans and Coignet stone were once manufactured.

6/15 "Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side": Nestled between 5th Avenue and 3rd Avenue in the upper 80s and lower 90s, Carnegie Hill is chock full of elegant historic architecture. Highlights include the former Andrew Carnegie mansion, now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum; the former Otto H. Kahn House, now Convent of the Sacred Heart; and the former Warburg Manison, now The Jewish Museum.

6/16 "St. George – New Brighton Historic District" MAS teams up with the Preservation League of Staten Island for a tour of this late 19th/early 20th century neighborhood in ‘downtown Staten Island.’ The tour will highlight the area’s historic municipal center, including the Carrere and Hastings designed Staten Island Borough Hall, and the residential historic district along the neighborhood’s St. Mark’s Place.

🔗Learn more about MAS Tours, view the calendar, and buy tickets here: https://www.mas.org/event-type/tour/

In a recent op-ed, MAS President Elizabeth Goldstein urged Mayor Adams to restore the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation budget and support NYC's urban forest. The importance of our city’s urban green spaces cannot be overstated. They are essential to our well-being and health and are critical infrastructure in the fight to address climate change and support our long-term sustainability goals.

The continued underfunding of NYC Parks contributes to growing inequality across our communities. In order for our parks to serve as backyards for millions of New Yorkers, they must be maintained to be fully enjoyed. To fulfill Mayor Adams’ campaign promise, the city budget must allocate 1 percent to NYC Parks and retain pre-pandemic staffing levels to effectively uphold these vital public resources. We know that so many other large U.S. cities commit this level of funding for their residents, so why not us?

MAS is a member of the New Yorkers for Parks hashtag Coalition and the hashtag Coalition.

Click the link here to read the Queens Chronicle op-ed: www.qchron.com/opinion/columns/mayor-must-fully-fund-our-backyards-parks/article_24639728-23a4-11ef-bc01-9702639c4899.html

New York City is filled with architectural beauty and brilliantly designed spaces and buildings. This June, New Yorkers can nominate the best new projects that enhance the city’s public realm for the 2024 MASterworks Awards, held annually by the Municipal Art Society of New York!

Established in 2001, the MASterworks Awards pay tribute to projects completed in the previous year that exemplify excellence in architecture and urban design. The call for nominations for the 2024 MASterworks Design Awards is now open to the public through Monday, July 8th.

Projects can be nominated in up to two of the following categories:

● Best New Building for outstanding architectural design,
● Best Urban Landscape for a new or revitalized open space that contributes to livability and resilience,
● Best Restoration for a project that expertly enhances the original qualities of a significant historic building or structure,
● Best Adaptive Reuse for a project that demonstrates exceptional creativity in adaptive reuse of an existing building or structure,
● Best New Infrastructure for distinctive design in public service projects, and
● Best New Urban Amenity for an addition to the built environment that contributes to a more livable city.
● Best Environmental Innovation for an exceptional project that enhances the environmental resiliency of the city

All nominated projects must be located in New York City and have a completion date during 2023. Nominations should include projects that have made a significant contribution to New York City’s built environment.

Learn more about MASterworks and make a nomination here: https://www.mas.org/awards/masterworks/

MAS proudly presents “The Irresistible Pull” by photographer Maureen Drennan. Merging two of Drennan’s projects “Island Kingdom” and “Rust Belt of New York,” the exhibit explores Brooklyn and Queens’ industrial waterfronts. Drennan’s lens reveals the soul of these neighborhoods, often dismissed as “off the beaten path,” yet integral to the tapestry of .

“The Irresistible Pull” immerses viewers in unseen lives and landscapes shaped by water, environment, and architecture. The exhibit invites exploration into the magnetic forces that bind people to a place and what compels individuals to these often-overlooked communities.

Explore the full exhibition here: www.mas.org/photo_exhibitions/irresistible-pull/

Just announced! MAS’s latest initiative: Greener Corridors for a More Resilient City (“Greener Corridors”)

This initiative makes the case that New York City’s thousands of miles of large arterial roadways—and the land around them—are an unrealized opportunity for the City to accomplish its biggest policy goals, including equitably mitigating the effects of climate change, improving public safety, and stimulating housing production.

Last week, MAS kicked off the initiative with a blog post explaining New York City’s arterial roads in greater detail, including why they matter from a current and historical perspective.

In the coming months, MAS will publish additional posts examining the intersection of multiple climate and livability issues along New York City’s largest roads, paying particular attention to environmental justice areas given the disproportionate and lasting impact of these thoroughfares on disadvantaged populations.

Read more about Greener Corridors: https://www.mas.org/initiatives/greener-corridors/
Read the first blog post in the series: https://www.mas.org/news/introducing-greener-corridors/

Join us! Upcoming MAS Tours | New York City’s oldest walking tour program, since 1956

🏙️ Led by expert guides with deep knowledge of NYC architecture, art, urban history, preservation, neighborhoods, and street life.

5/30 "Juror’s Guide to the City Hall District Revisited (40th Anniversary)”: Celebrate the anniversary of the MAS's, “Juror’s Guide to Lower Manhattan”, which featured six walking tours full of maps, photographs and drawings, and “filled with the history, architecture, and lore of the little-known but fascinating neighborhoods within walking distance of the courts,” and compare what the guide described as worthy of preservation, and what developments had occurred in the subsequent four decades.

6/1 “The Original Crown Heights North Tour”: Remarkable mansions, fine row houses, architecturally significant apartment houses, and beautiful houses of worship. Largely developed between 1880 and 1932, the neighborhood is a microcosm of the development of Brooklyn. Explore Grant Square, the St. Marks District, Doctor’s Row, Brower Park and other highlights in one of Brooklyn’s largest historic districts.

6/2 "Public Art of Rockefeller Center": From sculptures to mosaics to murals on canvas, Rockefeller Center bursts with a remarkable collection of artwork, most of it in the Art Deco style. Learn about the Center’s famous and not-so famous artworks and how they emphasize the importance of education, wisdom, and international trade.

🔗 Learn more about MAS Tours, view the calendar, and buy tickets here: https://www.mas.org/event-type/tour/

The Livable Neighborhoods Program (LNP) application is now open for 2024!

The Livable Neighborhoods Program was founded on the principle that community involvement is essential to city planning. Each year, LNP supports community advocates in developing the knowledge and tools needed to participate effectively in public review processes around land use issues.

Sessions range from exploring how planning decisions are made in New York City to supporting local advocacy and civic participation.

The program is free to attend and open to both individuals and organization representatives. Applications will be accepted through Wednesday, June 26.

Apply here: https://form.typeform.com/to/n5gvqtAG

Please email [email protected] with any questions.

Join us! Upcoming MAS Tours | New York City’s oldest walking tour program since 1956

🏙️Led by expert guides with deep knowledge of NYC architecture, art, urban history, preservation, neighborhoods, and street life.

5/24 “Chelsea Art Galleries”: New York is the art capital of the world! The best way to explore the latest trends in contemporary art is roaming the art galleries in NYC. We will explore a selection of the most interesting works on view. (note: Tour at 11am & repeated at 2pm)

5/25 “Skyscraper National Park: Postmodernism in the West 50s”: NYC bounced back in the 1980s, as the blocks west of Fifth Avenue filled with a new breed of skyscrapers. We will examine the varied results, discussing colorful towers that owed their distinctive character to local and historical traditions, air rights transfers, and incentive zoning.

🔗Learn more about MAS Tours, view the calendar, and buy tickets here: https://www.mas.org/event-type/tour/

Join us! Upcoming MAS Tours | New York City’s oldest walking tour program, since 1956

🏙️Led by expert guides with deep knowledge of NYC architecture, art, urban history, preservation, neighborhoods, and street life.

5/14 "Monuments & Memorials of Riverside Park" [Virtual tour] Includes the Beaux Arts-designed Grant’s Tomb – its history, architecture, and interior – and the statues and monuments that line the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Riverside Park, with a focus on the art and the artists who created them.

5/18 “East Harlem”: El Barrio, Spanish Harlem, East Harlem, Italian Harlem. All names for the neighborhood from 96th St to 125th St. This tour will visit culturally significant sites and unique murals that dot the neighborhood.

5/19 "St. Paul’s – Mud Lane Historic District" MAS teams up with the Preservation League of Staten Island for a spring walking tour of this late 19th/early 20th century neighborhood. The tour will highlight the many varied and wonderful architectural styles that now comprise this historic district.

🔗Learn more about MAS Tours, view the calendar, and buy tickets here: https://www.mas.org/event-type/tour/

With New York City in a constant state of change, how can the field of preservation be expanded to be a more multivocal, equitable, accessible, and inclusive framework for supporting diverse layers of history and culture in our city? What implications could such a shift have on our urban policy? Join us as we answer these questions + more at our upcoming virtual event, “Enduring Cultures in a Changing City.”

On Tuesday, May 21st from 12-1:30 PM ET, attend this dynamic Zoom Webinar session and learn from practitioners across New York City who are creatively building ways to support historical and cultural heritage in the ever-shifting landscape of our city. Each guest will share a short presentation on their impactful work followed by a moderated discussion and audience Q&A. Swipe to see the panelists who will be joining the panel!

RSVP for free here: https://www.mas.org/events/enduring-cultures-in-a-changing-city/

This event is part of MAS’s Enduring Culture Initiative, a multi-year effort to develop an expanded and multivocal historic preservation vision for New York City. Read more about the initiative here: https://www.mas.org/initiatives/enduring-culture/