As the song goes, New York City paved paradise and legally required a parking lot. Proponents of altering or eliminating the city's existing mandates on parking (some of which are more than a half-century old) argue that the laws drive up construction costs and fill space that could be used to house people — or build other amenities such as parks and playgrounds. Now a design team called "9x18" (after the dimensions of a regulation-size city parking spot) has evaluated and reimagined current laws around parking tied to affordable housing. In doing so, the trio provides a comprehensive roadmap (literally) to what can change and how. Taking a particular East Harlem neighborhood as a case study, fellows Nathan Rich, Miriam Peterson, and Sagi Golan, supported by the Institute for Public Architecture, generated a set of recommendations and interventions for the city's current surface-level lots and the policy surrounding them. Drawing on a report on "Inner Ring" neighborhoods, released last year by the NYC Department of City Planning, the team first identified New York communities with commonalities in car ownership, access to transit, and car use trends (above). Next, ...
As the song goes, New York City paved paradise and legally required a parking lot. Proponents of altering or eliminating the city's existing mandates on parking (some of which are more than a half-century old) argue that the laws drive up construction costs and fill space that could be used to house people — or build other amenities such as parks and playgrounds. Now a design team called "9x18" (after the dimensions of a regulation-size city parking spot) has evaluated and reimagined current laws around parking tied to affordable housing. In doing so, the trio provides a comprehensive roadmap (literally) to what can change and how. Taking a particular East Harlem neighborhood as a case study, fellows Nathan Rich, Miriam Peterson, and Sagi Golan, supported by the Institute for Public Architecture, generated a set of recommendations and interventions for the city's current surface-level lots and the policy surrounding them. Drawing on a report on "Inner Ring" neighborhoods, released last year by the NYC Department of City Planning, the team first identified New York communities with commonalities in car ownership, access to transit, and car use trends (above). Next, ...