For the past several decades, New York City has pushed to improve its major traffic arterials through measures such as new bus and bike lanes, slower speed limits, and more street trees. Despite this, dozens of major roadway corridors across the five boroughs remain woefully unsafe, unhealthy, inefficient, and unsustainable. Vehicles speed, pollute, and jostle in a street space free-for-all; desolate asphalt and concrete expanses are hot and impermeable; and auto-centric land uses make for an unpleasant and uninviting pedestrian experience where public and private realms meet.

Greener Corridors, one of MAS's signature initiatives, seeks to flip the script on these “boulevards of death.” Rather than barriers and spaces to avoid, what would it take for these corridors to be models of innovation and possibility for sustainability, public health, social cohesion, and equality among communities along their paths? The project intentionally focuses on corridors within environmental justice areas given the disproportionate and lasting impact of these thoroughfares on disadvantaged populations who suffer from stress, asthma, and other health issues.

Ultimately, Greener Corridors aims to create impact by being aspirational and visionary, but also rooted in identifying existing plans, policies, pilots, and tools that can be leveraged and strengthened. Through well-researched interactive stories, expert conversations, and international case studies, Greener Corridors will identify actionable design and policy recommendations to transform these underutilized spaces into more hospitable and dynamic assets.

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Workplace: The Municipal Art Society of New York

Year: 2024

Role: Lead Author, Researcher

Unlike several other large cities, including Boston, Los Angeles, and Paris, New York City lacked a central governmental position devoted to planning and coordinating the public realm. 

A Blueprint for Public Realm Leadership is a roadmap for the creation of a Deputy Mayor for Placemaking and the Public Realm, an MAS-proposed position within New York City government that would be dedicated to improving intergovernmental coordination, planning, and oversight of public spaces. 

The Blueprint builds off MAS's 2020 publication, A Public Champion for the Public Realm, with more specifics on the position. It recommends the government bodies the position would oversee and coordinate and the staff members necessary for its success. It also outlines a process for creating a citywide public realm plan and integrating public realm planning into the City’s budget cycle.

The report was informed by interviews conducted with nearly a dozen experts in planning, architecture, urban design, open space, economic development, government relations, and other fields to better understand the inner workings of New York City government and the need for a central position to oversee the public realm. 

A year after the Blueprint's publication, New York City Mayor Eric Adams appointed a Chief Public Realm Officer, the first such position in the city’s history.

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Workplace: The Municipal Art Society of New York

Year: 2022

Role: Lead Author, Researcher, Graphic Designer

Selected Media Coverage: The New York Times →   Gothamist →   Bloomberg →

A Framework for a City Built for Sunlight is an exhaustive examination of the issue of sunlight availability in New York City.  The report is based on extensive discussions with practitioners, academics, and thought leaders from around the world. 

Utilizing best practices from other global cities, we made policy recommendations for how New York City can preserve and create well-designed public spaces that maximize human thermal comfort. They include developing robust building and public realm design guidelines, better shaping development by regulating for building performance, and improving the environmental review process.

To inform and ground the report's recommendations, MAS collaborated with the Environmental Performance and Urban Interface teams at Kohn Pederson Fox (KPF) to examine existing sunlight availability in case study neighborhoods across the five boroughs. MAS was interested in whether and where there is enough sunlight for public spaces to be considered bright, thermally comfortable, and suitable for tree growth.

KPF's analysis revealed the inherent connection between sunlight, human perceptions of outdoor comfort, and the survivability of plants in the public realm. Public spaces are conveyors for sunlight, and their importance is especially apparent in areas of New York City that lack sunlight.

We also conducted a citywide social vulnerability assessment to identify populations for whom protecting the public realm is particularly crucial.

Taken together, these analyses point to the need for targeted, place-based solutions alongside citywide policies that consider sunlight and public space from a broader health equity perspective.

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Workplace: The Municipal Art Society of New York

Year: 2021

Role: Lead Author, Researcher, Data Analyst

New York City segments oversight of its public realm across a vast array of more than 25 different agencies. Rather than functioning together as a seamless public realm network, the spaces controlled by these various entities are each governed with different rules, competing priorities, and disjointed leadership.

A Public Champion for the Public Realm proposes a new Director of the Public Realm position for New York City. Our report outlines the potential responsibilities of the Director, the resources they would need to succeed, and the most effective place to house the position within New York City government.

The report examines and was informed by innovative public realm management approaches in other cities including Boston, Los Angeles, and Paris.

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Workplace: The Municipal Art Society of New York

Year: 2020

Role: Lead Author, Researcher

Selected Media Coverage: Streetsblog →

Bright Ideas, released at MAS's 2019 Summit for New York City conference, serves as a primer on the relationship between access to sunlight and the health, ecology, environment, and economy of cities. The report marked the beginning of Fight for Light, a joint campaign with New Yorkers for Parks that focuses on the role of light, air, and the public realm in improving the health of New York City residents and addressing the urgent demands for climate change solutions.

The report examines New York’s existing regulatory processes and strategies for safeguarding light and air. It explores key concepts, like the difference between shade and shadow. And it shares best practices from other global cities that are incorporating these resources into their design. 

Bright Ideas was guided by a task force of national and international experts in architecture, engineering, environmental justice, law, planning, public health, and real estate who helped shape an exploration of policy directives within the report.

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Workplace: The Municipal Art Society of New York

Year: 2019

Role: Lead Author

Eminent domain, the right of a government to take private property for public use, was originally intended for projects with clear public purposes, such as the construction of utility lines. However, the use of eminent domain became increasingly controversial in the twenty-first century as it was used for more discretionary projects.

The purpose of my research was to determine the Ithaca public's opinion of the City of Ithaca’s proposed use of eminent domain for Phase Two of the Cayuga Waterfront Trail, and how opinion differed across demographic groups.

The six-mile long trail was conceived as a way to revitalize Ithaca’s waterfront. Phase One was completed in 2002 and Phase Three was completed in the fall of 2010. At the time of the study, Phase Two, the key link between the first and third phases, had yet to be completed due to conflict between the City of Ithaca and property owners whose land would be partially taken using eminent domain.

While public hearings had been held on the issue, no study had been conducted to determine the Ithaca public’s opinion of the City’s use of eminent domain for Phase Two. There were also no studies or public opinion surveys that had been conducted elsewhere.

The research involved administering a telephone survey using a listed sample of 250 Ithaca residents through the Cornell Survey Research Institute. Results suggested that Ithaca residents supported the use of eminent domain both as a general principle and in accomplishing Phase Two. Specifically, residents favored eminent domain by a ratio of about 5 (in favor): 3 (opposed): 2 (undecided). Younger to middle-aged residents who held at least a bachelor’s degree were most likely to favor its use.

The research demonstrated strong community support for the use of eminent domain for Phase Two. It also helped fill a critical void of literature on the topic of public opinion of the use of eminent domain.

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Workplace: Cornell University

Year: 2011

Role: Lead Author, Researcher, Survey Administrator, Data Analyst