Category Archives: Pedestrian

Occupy Broad Street

by John Massengale Posted on September 16, 2016

THE BROAD crossroads where Wall Street and Broad Street come together is a beautiful space, fully the equal of medieval European plazas. Today, post-911, it’s closed to almost all traffic, because the New York Stock Exchange sits at the southwest corner of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Beauty, Current, New York, Pedestrian, Slow Street of the Day, Slow Streets, Street Design, Street of the Day, Urbanism, Walkability | Comments Off on Occupy Broad Street

NYC DOT Shared Streets: Lower Manhattan THIS SATURDAY

by John Massengale Posted on August 11, 2016

THE NYC DOT’S SHARED STREETS: LOWER MANHATTAN will take place Saturday, August 13  as part of the annual Summer Streets program. Frankly, it looks like the weather will not be good, but the rain will come and go, and this … Continue reading →

Posted in Current, Good Kind, New York, Pedestrian, Slow Streets, Street Design, Urbanism, Walkability | Comments Off on NYC DOT Shared Streets: Lower Manhattan THIS SATURDAY

To Stop Pedestrian Deaths NYC Must Change How it Builds Streets

by John Massengale Posted on December 29, 2015

From CITYLIMITS.ORG: November 13th—Friday the 13th—marked the 13th day in a row that a pedestrian died on a New York City Street, all killed by cars or buses going too fast. They were among the 19 pedestrian deaths in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Beauty, Current, New Urbanism, New York, Pedestrian, Slow Streets, Street Design, Urbanism, Walkability | Comments Off on To Stop Pedestrian Deaths NYC Must Change How it Builds Streets

God is in the details

by John Massengale Posted on December 22, 2015

I’m working on a project in Connecticut where the team is proposing a “Slow Zone” in the center of town. An engineer on a project is a little worried about some of the details I’ve proposed. He wrote, “I think we … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Beauty, Bicycle, Craft, Culture, Current, Good Kind, Materials, Pedestrian, Slow Streets, Street Design, Urbanism, Walkability | Comments Off on God is in the details

QB Redux: I think that I shall never see…

by John Massengale Posted on August 7, 2015

WHEN I SHOWED A TRANSFORMATION FOR QUEENS BOULEVARD that included trees over the subway beneath the wide street, some people naturally had some doubts about how well the trees would grow. But look at these trees above the similar “cut and … Continue reading →

Posted in Live from New York, New York, Pedestrian, Street Design, Street of the Day, Urbanism | Comments Off on QB Redux: I think that I shall never see…

Vester Voldgade – Our Street of the Day / A Street Design Supplement*

by John Massengale Posted on July 19, 2015

VESTER VOLDGADE, KØBENHAVN (“West Rampart Street, Copenhagen”) is interesting both for its current condition and and its original state. It’s called “Voldgade” because like the boulevards of Paris, it was built where the old city wall stood (the French word “boulevard” … Continue reading →

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Why Is A Private Company Allowed To Close And Design Public Streets?

by John Massengale Posted on June 15, 2015

UPDATE: The good news is that this has been to the Community Boards, which endorsed the plan—I don’t know why I didn’t find that in my searches or calls around this morning. It is good that there is some public … Continue reading →

Posted in Current, New York, Pedestrian, Street Design, The Other Kind, Urbanism | Comments Off on Why Is A Private Company Allowed To Close And Design Public Streets?

Happy Earth Day — The 21st Century Is The New Sixties?

by John Massengale Posted on April 22, 2015

EARTH DAY reminded me of my old friend Konrad Oberhuber, an art historian at Harvard when I met him, who later became the Curator of the Albertina in Vienna. In 1983 I went on a Fogg Museum trip to Prague with Konrad … Continue reading →

Posted in Bicycle, Classical, Culture, Current, Global, Historic Preservation, New Urbanism, Pedestrian, Street Design, Walkability | Comments Off on Happy Earth Day — The 21st Century Is The New Sixties?