Bloomberg Didn't Love the High Line from the Start?

I wasn't aware that Mike didn't support the High Line from the very start...Apparently, Burden helped convince him...?


December 29, 2004

An Aesthetic Watchdog in the City Planning Office
By ROBIN POGREBIN


She is loath to go into detail, but Amanda M. Burden is clearly not crazy about the design for a Jets stadium on the Far West Side of Manhattan. As director of the City Planning Department, she has built her reputation on concern for aesthetics: how a building looks, how it relates to the street, how it serves the people who use its public spaces. The proposed $1.4 billion stadium, a colossal complex with blinking images on its facade, has been faulted by critics for its visual noise and the way it would block views of the Hudson.

Yet much is riding on the proposal. For one thing, it is a pet project of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his deputy mayor, Daniel L. Doctoroff, who say it would advance New York's bid for the 2012 Olympics.

And Ms. Burden is a good soldier. In a recent interview, she would go only so far as to say the stadium could be "even better."

"We've been pushing the Jets very, very hard to improve the design - I am very intent on doing that," she said. "It should be an exciting experience."

Such is the balancing act for the city planning director as she strives to raise the bar for new architecture in New York. Yet Ms. Burden is making a significant impact, architects and planning experts say. She has not only repeatedly sent architects back to the drawing board, but also spurred commercial development in once-dormant neighborhoods like downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City, Queens; sought to preserve the character of others like the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx through zoning changes; and improved plazas and parks by backing the current renovation of Columbus Circle, for example, or by proposing new design guidelines for all privately owned public spaces.

"I believe that by raising expectations, higher standards will become the norm," she said in an interview at her office.

Compared with a Robert Moses, the think-big public works czar who imposed a sweeping vision on highways and parks across the city from the 1930's to the 60's, Ms. Burden might be considered an aesthetic watchdog. "She is the design conscience of New York," said Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, an influential private research agency that opposes the stadium. "We just haven't had this design sensibility in City Hall - maybe ever. You're seeing that in the quality of public and private design, whether it's an office building in Midtown or the Brooklyn waterfront."

Historically, the City Planning Department has focused more on responding to developers' proposals than on trying to mold them. The last time the city took an aggressive role in architecture was in the 1960's, when the heady social ideals of urban planning drew many architects to public service in the Lindsay administration.

"It's hard because New York doesn't believe in planning," said Hugh Hardy, a prominent architect. "The plan was the grid - and to make money by increasing density."

In devising urban design master plans, Ms. Burden has set enforceable guidelines like those for Hudson Yards that mandate retail spaces with a sense of continuity and transparency, ample sidewalk widths, trees along the street, adequate tower setbacks and limits on tower widths. Without Ms. Burden, there might be no High Line project, its supporters say, a plan for a 22-block elevated garden stretching from the downtown meatpacking district to 34th Street on Manhattan's West Side. Friends of the High Line, a nonprofit group, says that Ms. Burden made a compelling case for the project to Mayor Bloomberg, who initially opposed it, and fostered the design competition that attracted top-flight architects, including the winners, Diller, Scofidio & Renfro.

Other prominent commissions awarded through Ms. Burden's influence include Richard Rogers's new East River waterfront in Lower Manhattan - which calls for better access, amenities and open space - and the transformation of Staten Island's Fresh Kills landfill into 2,200 acres of new park and recreation. Ms. Burden is overseeing the master planning process for both.

Some might assume that Ms. Burden coasted into office because of her social connections: she is a stepdaughter of the CBS founder William S. Paley, the former wife of media moguls (Carter Burden, then Steve Ross) and the companion of Charlie Rose, the talk show host, with whom she is frequently photographed at glamorous events.

But she was hardly a shoo-in: she had supported Mark Green, Mr. Bloomberg's opponent, in the mayoral race, and Mr. Doctoroff wanted Alexander Garvin, then chief planner for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

Yet she had earned her credentials, overseeing the planning of Battery Park City for 10 years, starting in 1983, while pursuing her master's degree in urban planning at Columbia University.

And although her elegant black suits and demeanor are not what you might ordinarily expect to find under the fluorescent lights at public hearings, she appears to be holding her own, even in politically charged projects like rebuilding ground zero.

"She's been a strong advocate for a large amount of public space - ensuring that it is integrated within the site but also with the Lower Manhattan community," said Kevin M. Rampe, the president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. At the same time, Ms. Burden is fiercely discreet, those who have worked with her say. On the stadium, for example, she has made a point of keeping her differences with Mr. Doctoroff under wraps.

In person, Ms. Burden is similarly opaque: expansive about her projects but circumspect about personal matters or interdepartmental dynamics.

Ms. Burden also serves as chairwoman of the City Planning Commission, the department's policymaking body, through which she sets design standards.

"Good architecture is good economic development," she said.

Historically, developers have chafed at being saddled with prominent architects, because architects can slow the building process with design concerns. But these days, they often have little choice.

"Developers now go to better architects because they know excellence is required," said Frederic Schwartz, a Manhattan architect.

John E. Zuccotti, co-chairman of the Brookfield Properties Corporation, the largest downtown landlord, said Ms. Burden's design agenda occasionally made waves because it slowed or complicated the building process.

"It sometimes annoys people because the City Planning Department is not supposed to focus on architecture," said Mr. Zuccotti, himself a former Planning Commission chairman. "It's sometimes not the most efficient approach, but she has her role. Only time will tell whether she pushes it too far."

By many accounts, she has been careful not to push it too far with Mr. Doctoroff, who as deputy mayor for economic development is a booster for timely construction. Mr. Doctoroff said he and Ms. Burden had clashed "from time to time" on such matters but added that the disagreements were "nothing terribly dramatic."

"She clearly pushes people," he said, "but I think in ways that most have found helpful."

"Sure it costs more," Mr. Doctoroff said of the design process. "It's more difficult when you hire a famous architect; you have sometimes less control over your project. You're dealing with people who have a real desire to put art into buildings, and that complicates the building process."

Ms. Burden also makes a point of sounding out neighborhoods about development projects, like asking Harlem residents about their hopes for 125th Street. "The community is not going to buy in unless it reflects their culture," she said.

Being heard on development projects doesn't mean residents are happy about them. The Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks and Planning, an advocacy group for North Brooklyn, has yet to support plans for the Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront, a residential and park project. The group argues that the plan fails to guarantee affordable housing and enough new parks and open space.

At the same time, the community advocates say, they do not fault Ms. Burden. "Amanda is doing her job," said Joseph Vance, a co-chairman of the association. "She doesn't control the purse strings. She can only do what she can do."

Members of Community Board 4, which covers the Far West Side, oppose the Jets stadium but say Ms. Burden is not to blame. "Amanda clearly has a commitment to community input into land-use planning, and that is a refreshing change from prior administrations," said Anna Hayes Levin, a vice chairwoman of the community board. "But she has a boss who is determined to make this plan work and therefore has her hands tied."

Ms. Burden defends the project. "This is for long-term growth - and that's just 10 percent growth over the next 30 or 40 years," she said. "We think that's the right thing to do."

She said she had already made a difference in the project, proposing parks on four sides and insisting on retail and active public uses to create more sidewalk vitality.

"You can measure the health of the city in the vitality of the street life," Ms. Burden said. "That's true in Bayside, Tottenville or on Madison Avenue. That's what people focus on - what's right in front of them."

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