I worked on a streetscape study of Water Street as a planning intern with the New York City Department of City Planning. Water Street is a major commercial corridor in Lower Manhattan that had many underutilized public spaces, a large number of which were developed under the Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) program. The Department sought to activate public spaces along the corridor to make it more inviting for pedestrians and businesses, and also as a way to support the planed Select Bus Service (SBS) route along Water Street.
As a result of the streetscape study, the Manhattan Office considered that expanding the receiving sites of a previously existing transfer of development rights program could enliven the street over time by allowing for retail infill of building arcades dating back to the 1970's and 1980's. These arcades, part of the Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) program, have generally been unsightly and underutilized. I created a map of arcades on Water Street (shown below) as a step in the analysis of this possible alternative.
Ultimately, the study informed the Lower Manhattan Arcades Text Amendment, which identified privately owned public spaces where commercial uses such as outdoor seating would be permitted. The photo above represents a result of this text amendment, which has positively influenced the vitality of the Water Street corridor.
*Photo courtesy of Downtown Express
Below are excerpts from the final presentation of the streetscape study. This involved reporting some of the initial conclusions of the study, recommending next steps, and presenting a block-by-block analysis of the potential for moveable seating.
Some of the slides provide examples of our basic block-by-block visualizations of proposed seating areas (in yellow) that would also conform to the minimums laid out in NYCDOT's design guidelines.
One of our products was a comprehensive map of all streetscape elements and street furniture throughout the Water Street corridor. Created using a combination of GIS and Adobe Illustrator, the map was used to determine the viability of providing moveable sidewalk seating and in assessing the sidewalk space available for other improvements.
Follow this URL to view or download a larger version of the final map: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B2ga1ayLfzWPMVptc0xWYkZ4b00
