Look at New York’s waterfronts and neighborhoods. Explore its outer boroughs. Everything is changing, even if at first glance it looks the same. Piers on the Hudson and East Rivers are busier than ever, but not
with teamsters unloading shipping containers. Now they serve as parks for families and tourists. Parts of Brooklyn and Queens have become magnets for architecture firms and other creative enterprises, not just bedroom communities. Cultural landmarks such as the Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center have undertaken major building projects, while smaller ones have helped rebrand down-andout avenues. (Think of the New Museum and the newly chic Bowery.) Architecture has played an enormous role in these transformations, upping the design ante in affordable housing, luxury
condos, police stations, and branch libraries all around town. In many cases, architects have collaborated with landscape architects and other
designers to turn derelict viaducts and even landfills into civic and recreational attractions, softening a city once known for its hard edges.

Pictured: The High Line Park; Photo © Iwan Baan

The New New York City Apartment House
Shigeru Ban, Frank Gehry, Annabelle Selldorf, and other high-profile designers reinvent the New York residential building.

Photo © dbox

They Unpaved Paradise and Took Out a Parking Lot
New parks are opening and old parks are being revitalized at a pace not seen since Robert Moses’s heyday.

Photo © Jeff Mermelstein

A New Era for the City of Culture
Spurred by city funds, arts organizations have built and expanded all over town.

Photo © Jeff Mermelstein

Investments in Public Architecture Pay Off for the City
New York champions design in municipal projects from fire stations and garages to libraries and courthouses.

Photo © Nicholas Buccalo

City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden
Under Mayor Bloomberg, New York City planners launched an aggressive initiative to compete in the global economy.

Photo © NYC Department of City Planning