See the final vision for Park Avenue’s green redesign
Bosque median at 50th Street. All renderings courtesy of Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners
Plans to reimagine Park Avenue as a green oasis in the heart of Manhattan are moving forward. The city’s Department of Transportation this week released the final design concept for the 11-block stretch of the corridor, which intends to bring the “park back to Park Avenue” by widening the traffic medians and adding greenery and seating. After gathering feedback from the public this spring, the city, along with Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners, the team leading the design, updated the concept to move the originally proposed two-way bike lane along the median into dedicated space, leaving enough room for both cyclists and pedestrians.
“New Yorkers asked us to make more room for people to walk, bike and enjoy their city, and we listened,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.
“This updated design puts more space where it belongs: in the hands of New Yorkers. By expanding our medians, adding greenery and seating and creating a dedicated protected bike connection, we are making Park Avenue safer and more beautiful for everyone who uses it.”
Promised as new public space under the 2017 rezoning of Midtown East, the project targets the Park Avenue Malls that run between East 46th Street and East 57th Street and sit above the century-old Grand Central Terminal train shed, which the MTA is currently rebuilding.
The “most important piece of MTA infrastructure you’ve never heard of,” as MTA CEO Janno Lieber described it, the train shed is the structure under Park Avenue where almost all Metro-North trains entering Grand Central are sorted to platforms. Decades of water, chemical, and salt infiltration from the streets have led the concrete and steel beams that hold up the street to deteriorate.
The above-ground median project will happen at the same time as the below-ground train shed work since it requires parts of Park Avenue to be removed.
The updated Park Avenue design removes one travel lane in each direction and converts one additional southbound travel lane into a two-way protected bike lane.
Seating, plantings, and art will be added to the expanded medians. The redesign is expected to take five years to complete, according to the New York Times.
“The reconstruction of the Metro North Train shed along with the Midtown East rezoning has created a generational opportunity for the city to create a world-class green carpet in the heart of Midtown,” Laura Starr, FASLA, partner at Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners, told 6sqft.
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