Manufacturing in NYC is not dead. Here’s the blueprint

June 6, 2019 By Matthew Putman and Vincent Lee Crain’s recently reported two statistics that seem unrelated but taken together say something significant about New York City’s future as an engine of opportunity, innovation, and equity. The first was that manufacturing lost more jobs than initially estimated and now accounts for only 69,000 jobs in the city, or 1.5% of the total. The second was that information jobs grew by 6% to about 200,000. The combination of a shrinking manufacturing sector and a growing information economy has had a profound impact on New York and cities across the U.S.—driving diverging narratives of opportunity and stagnation. Is this bifurcation permanent? Only …

Designing the Factory of the Future

One of the most exciting projects happening at Rogers Partners is the collaboration with Nanotronics to reimagine a historic building in the Brooklyn Navy Yard as a fully integrated advanced manufacturing facility and headquarters. Nanotronics has a vision for reinventing the high-tech production process as a seamless workspace, from idea to design to engineering to sales. This requires a complete rethinking not only of this historic building, but also how to design for a cutting edge production process in the urban context. The shared goal is nothing short of bringing advanced manufacturing back to the urban core. From Fast Company: …

An Original Influencer

I’m thrilled to contribute to a booklet honoring the career of urban planning Professor Susan Fainstein, an influencer extraordinare and pioneer of the Just City framework. I had the honor of taking classes with her at Columbia and we’ve remained friends ever since. The booklet is more than a celebration of her career but also a wide-ranging discussion about planning over the past fifty years. She has greatly influenced the trajectory of the field by teaching thousands of students, advising on at least 40 PhD dissertations, as well as researched and written influential books and articles. The video interview that …

Thought Leadership in Urban Planning

  It was a pleasure crafting an article for Planning Magazine on behalf of Dan Marsh of NDC, Seth Pinsky of RXR Realty, and Luiz Aragon, Development Commissioner of New Rochelle. Titled “Skin in the Game,” the piece goes in-depth about an innovative, market-based planning process that is wildly successful for redeveloping downtown New Rochelle. This public-private-nonprofit collaboration is creating dense, transit-oriented development with significant community benefits baked into the process while protecting surrounding neighborhoods. This is exactly how cities will succeed economically, socially, environmentally. This planning process works. See the whole article (PDF): NEW ROCHELLE_1218-1  

NDC in Crain’s NY

October 25, 2018 Rebuild public universities with private-sector efficiency CUNY could speed up glacial development process with nonprofit P3 model Daniel Marsh The City University of New York is in the process of selecting a new chancellor. The longer it takes, the more challenging it will be for its next leader to address a critical issue: CUNY’s aging building stock. This is no small undertaking. The city’s public universities have 24 campuses and more than 300 buildings with an average age exceeding 50. Some date back more than a century. Repairing old CUNY facilities is difficult enough, but developing new …

WXY receives distinguished AIA merits

  Co-founder and principal-in-charge Claire Weisz recently received an AIA New York Medal of Honor, its highest award to a member for distinction in the profession. The jury cited Claire’s “distinguished work and high professional standing.” Additionally, co-founder and principal Mark Yoes was recently elevated to Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, the national group’s highest honor recognizing “exceptional work and lasting contributions to architecture and society.” For more than 25 years, Claire and her partners – including Mark, Adam Lubinsky, PhD, AICP, and Layng Pew, AIA – have evolved WXY into a truly integrated interdisciplinary firm by working across architecture, …

Claire Weisz on Resilient Design

It has been an honor and privilege to work with Claire Weisz, principal-in-charge of WXY architecture + urban design, on an important article, published by Architectural Design/Wiley in this beautiful book, SU+RE: Sustainable + Resilient Design Systems. Claire’s article, titled Resilient Design: Systems Thinking as a Response to Climate Change, argues that “design thinking” needs to be coupled with “systems thinking” in order to adequately deal with the magnitude of climate change, and surprisingly it is smaller, interdisciplinary firms that are leading the way when it comes to innovative systems-thinking approaches to the big problems of climate change. “Design thinking is not enough. For resilient architecture and …

NDC in Crain’s NY

OPINION December 14, 2017 12:49 p.m. Updated 12/14/2017 OP-ED Congress’ response to successful rehabs like Kings Theatre: kill them Federal reform poised to eliminate New Markets and Historic tax credits By Daniel Marsh Three years ago this February, Kings Theatre in Brooklyn reopened after a years-long effort to rehabilitate this Loews Wonder Theater, one of five built in the New York area at the peak of the Jazz Age. Styled as a French movie palace, Kings opened in 1929 as Brooklyn’s version of the Paris Opera House. Walking into Kings today is like stepping back in time to visit 19th-century Paris and …

Where Resiliency Hits the Road

I have a new piece in the Fall 2017 issue of Oculus: Should resilience officers focus on preparing for climate change? When it comes to this existential challenge, there’s not even a consensus on this seemingly basic question. “Where Resiliency Hits the Road:  How those at the forefront of adapting to climate change and natural disasters are implementing effective projects at scale.” “No other approach to design encompasses the existential concepts of time and space like resilient design. The response to climate change is necessary at all scales – from the one-acre public plaza to the regional oastline to the multi-state …

WXY in LA, Toronto, and DC

Claire Weisz, principal-in-charge of WXY architecture + urban design, will be on a distinguished panel of experts discussing the latest mobility innovations and what that means for public space. What can Los Angeles — and the Arts District in particular — learn from New York City projects, such as Astor Place and the Brooklyn Strand? Find out when Claire speaks on Dec. 19th at LA CoMotion. At the City Age Toronto conference — just on the heels of Sidewalk Labs’ announcement to create an innovation district on the Toronto waterfront — Claire will be discussing the firm’s work developing three …