Municipal Art Society Of New York

Programs: Education and public programsmas works on the ground in all five boroughs mobilizing new yorkers on issues that affect our city from sidewalk to skyline. In fy17, our livable neighborhoods program trained 165 local stakeholders in the south bronx and corona/elmhurst in queens to serve as land use advocates for their communities. Our annual jane's walk weekend brought more than 4,000 new yorkers and visitors onto the streets for 200+ free neighborhood walks celebrating urban life. And our renowned tour guides offered more than 500 tours exploring the art, architecture, and cultural history of new york's five boroughs. Finally, our signature annual conference, the summit for new york city, brought together hundreds of new yorkers to discuss the protection and promotion of our shared urban resources (parks, open space, libraries, museums, streetscapes, infrastructure, views, and more) around our 2016 theme "public assets".

preservationmas protects historic and cultural landmarks, neighborhood character, legacy businesses, and public art through values-based preservation. We testified or made recommendation on more than 25 historic preservation issues, including the proposed expansion of cultural institutions like the american museum of natural history, the impact of the east midtown, inwood, and east harlem rezoning on neighborhood character, and the need to identify historic properties in downtown brooklyn and the flatiron district. Our adopt-a-monument and adopt-a-mural program continued its work conserving and maintaining more than 50 works of public art in all five boroughs, including the unveiling of our latest restoration: the henry ward beecher monument in brooklyn's cadman plaza. And in honor of jane jacobs' 100th birthday, we presented the first international jane jacobs medal at the united nations habitat iii conference in quito, ecuador, in partnership with the rockefeller foundation.

planningmas promotes diverse neighborhoods, efficient and reliable infrastructure, affordable housing, and inviting open space through comprehensive, community-based urban planning. In conjunction with our 2016 summit, mas released a first-of-its-kind map of city-owned and leased properties, revealing that 22 percent of these public assets are classified by the city as having "no current use. " we continued our engagement on the future of penn station, issuing several recommendations over the course of the year following governor andrew cuomo's announcement that the state was accepting proposals for the redevelopment of the station. Our accidental skyline project prepared to release a comprehensive agenda for reforming the city's public review and environmental review process to close the loopholes in the city zoning resolution. And we celebrated a long-awaited win for new york city neighborhoods when our 1976 and 2004 recommendations for reforming the board of standards and appeals were turned into a package of legislation now in effect.