![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/NYC_AdobeStock.jpg\")
f<\/p>\nAs New York City enters a new\u00a0mayoral administration, the\u00a0opportunity for ambitious urban transformation is\u00a0immense\u00a0and the new City leadership has set\u00a0innovative goals for\u00a0the future of our city.<\/p>\n
Across the five boroughs, communities are calling for safer\u00a0and more people-oriented\u00a0streets, climate resilience\u00a0that centers environmental justice,\u00a0affordable\u00a0housing\u00a0for families, civic infrastructure\u00a0to enable youth to thrive, and\u00a0equitable job generation to provide access to\u00a0resilient\u00a0livelihoods\u00a0that reflects the needs of today \u2013 not the legacy of yesterday. From waterfronts to transit corridors, from civic spaces to historic districts, the city is poised for a new era of people-centered planning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With\u00a0new leadership in City Hall and galvanized New Yorkers, we have a\u00a0dynamic\u00a0opportunity to align policy, investment, and design around a shared vision: one that prioritizes affordability, environmental justice, green jobs, sustainable\u00a0transportation, and public space for all New Yorkers. At Buro Happold, we believe this moment demands bold ideas \u2013 and\u00a0implementable action.\u00a0<\/p>\n
f<\/p>\n
What we wish for:<\/p>\n
Public spaces and transit that prioritize people<\/p>\n
New York is an innovator in taking back the streets for people. With congestion pricing demonstrating great success, we can transform our streets for transit,\u00a0walking\u00a0and biking.\u00a0Since 2014, Buro Happold has been deeply engaged in diagnosing and reimagining the public realm in Lower Manhattan. Through our work on the\u00a0Make Way for\u00a0Lower Manhattan<\/a>\u00a0initiative, we led a multidisciplinary team to quantify the pressures on the colonial street grid\u00a0\u2013\u00a0pressures driven by a doubling of residential and tourism numbers, a fourfold increase in hotel rooms, and a surge in creative industries. Our findings, shaped by extensive stakeholder engagement and presented to city officials, laid the groundwork for the \u201cMake Way\u201d plan <\/a>and continue to inform pilot projects aimed at decongesting and reconnecting the district.\u00a0<\/p>\n This approach\u00a0\u2013\u00a0combining spatial analysis, community input, and design strategy\u00a0\u2013\u00a0is applicable across the city, wherever outdated infrastructure limits mobility and livability.\u00a0<\/p>\n Climate action grounded in environmental justice<\/p>\n NYC is not only a frontrunner in climate adaptation strategies, but a city that centers environmental justice in its climate strategies. Buro Happold\u2019s work with the Mayor\u2019s Office on the EJNYC Environmental Justice Report and Mapping Tool<\/a> has helped the city identify communities most vulnerable to climate and environmental risks. This tool is a critical resource for ensuring that future resilience investments are equitable and data-driven. In Battery Park City<\/a>, our collaboration on the Climate Action Plan<\/a> has demonstrated how sustainability and livability can be integrated into waterfront neighborhoods, offering a model for future resilience planning citywide.<\/p>\n Equitable jobs through the green economy and working waterfronts<\/p>\n Our climate sectors and working waterfronts are the backbone of the city\u2019s past and future \u2013 and a massive opportunity for good green jobs. We\u2019ve helped shape the city\u2019s Green Economy Action Plan<\/a>, working with NYCEDC and the Mayor\u2019s Office to identify pathways for growing green industries and jobs. Our advisory role in this effort reflects a commitment to economic equity and climate innovation \u2013 principles that are especially relevant to underutilized waterfront spaces across the five boroughs. Projects like the New York Climate Exchange on Governors Island<\/a> further demonstrate our ability to connect climate research, workforce development, and urban design. Our work at Hunts Point, Brooklyn Army Terminal (BAT), and Brooklyn Marine Terminal (BMT)<\/a> continues to support the transformation of waterfront infrastructure into engines of equitable economic growth.<\/p>\n Affordable and sustainable housing for all New Yorkers<\/p>\n The housing crisis is NYC\u2019s biggest challenge. Not only are we in a catalytic moment to build consensus towards our affordability goals, we also positioned to deliver on our energy goals through new sustainable housing. As New York grapples with housing affordability and zoning reform, Buro Happold has contributed to strategic planning efforts like the Where We Live NYC study<\/a>, the Manhattan Plan<\/a>, and the City of Yes zoning advisory. These initiatives support inclusive growth and transit-oriented development, including along corridors like the proposed Interborough Express (IBX) \u2013 a vital link for equitable housing expansion.<\/p>\n Circular and low-emission buildings<\/p>\n The City is the industry catalyst to shift our building stock from business-as-usual to innovative sustainable construction. The public sector building portfolio is primed to be the incubator for these technologies with schools and civic facilities as key opportunities. In the realm of building decarbonization, our work on the Empire State Building retrofit<\/a> and the SPARC<\/a> sustainability hub showcases our leadership in circular and low-emission design. These projects prove that even the most iconic and complex buildings can be transformed to meet the city\u2019s climate goals, and they offer replicable models for aging building stock citywide.<\/p>\n Climate resilient neighborhoods and adaptive waterfronts<\/p>\n Our city is at the vanguard of climate adaptation and reimagining our waterfronts. Resilience approaches are opportunities for all neighborhoods across NYC. While our qualifications in coastal resilience stem from earlier work \u2013 such as the Jamaica Bay Great Urban Park<\/a> and the Reimagine Canals Strategy for Erie Canal<\/a> \u2013 they remain relevant as New York prepares for a new wave of climate adaptation projects. These efforts underscore the importance of long-term planning and community engagement in protecting vulnerable waterfronts.<\/p>\n Education assets as hubs of sustainability and resilience<\/p>\n Schools and childcare are core to enabling a multi-generational New York. These sites are the hubs of our communities and can be the locus for many intersecting benefits including climate resilience and decarbonization. Though we have not yet contributed directly to childcare infrastructure, we recognize its growing importance \u2013 especially as universal childcare becomes a policy priority. We support the administration\u2019s focus to integrate youth-centered design into future urban planning efforts.<\/p>\n Accessible civic infrastructure, food ecosystems, and cultural assets<\/p>\n Our civic ecosystems are the lifeblood of our city \u2013 what draws people here and enriches their lives once they are New Yorkers. Strategies to ensure our civic, food and cultural infrastructure are woven into the lives and livelihoods of our city are essential. Civic infrastructure \u2013 libraries, community centers, and public spaces \u2013 must be part of the conversation. If New York is to become a truly livable city for all, it needs more than plazas and pedestrian zones; it needs places for people to gather, learn, and grow. We welcome opportunities to support these efforts.<\/p>\n A call to action<\/p>\n The new Mamdani administration has a chance to make history \u2013 not just by fixing what\u2019s broken, but by building something visionary. Let\u2019s set the stage for a new kind of New York \u2013 a New Era that puts people first, and sets a global standard for inclusive, resilient urban design. The time for action is now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As New York City enters a new\u00a0mayoral administration, the\u00a0opportunity for ambitious urban transformation is\u00a0immense\u00a0and the new City leadership…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[30894,20624,9,24,55,54,56,63],"class_list":["post-116403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-advisory","tag-city-planning","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/MAKE-W1-1024x683.jpg\")
Make Way for Lower Manhattan. Image: Financial District Neighborhood Association (FDNA)<\/p>\n![\"Graphic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/NYGreenEconomy_00-1024x683.jpg\")
New York City\u2019s Green Economy plan. Image: Buro Happold.<\/p>\n![\"Landscape](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/EmpireStateBuilding_00_EmpireStateRealtyTrust-1024x683.jpg\")
Empire State Building. Image: Buro Happold. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Brockport-Pedestrian-Bridge-2025-2.jpg\")
Brockport Pedestrian Bridge. Image: Barrett Doherty.<\/p>\n