Times Square Studio

  • Times Square Studio is the public space section of the final design studio in the Masters of Landscape Design at Columbia University in New York City.

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  • March 30, 2010

    Was in Times Square on March 20th-one of the spectacular (and slightly freakishly) warm days recently.  Had to see what the sun was doing.  I was so happy to see that between 43rd and 44th there was a lot more sun than I thought.  Particularly on the west side of the space near ‘Military Plaza’.  The trouble spot seems to be The Toys R Us stretch between 44th and 45th.  Only dappled sun that very bright day, again most of the light hugging the west side of the plaza.  But low and behold!  When 7th and B’way cross as you head north-here comes the sun.

    Kathleen

    3 years ago
     

  • Mid way work-plan

    Kathleen

    3 years ago
     
  • March 23, 2010

    Mid-term Presentation by Ngoc Minh Ngo

    3 years ago
     
  • March 22, 2010

    Midway Presentation Melissa Schiltz

    3 years ago
     
  • March 21, 2010

    A Grand Gesture for Times Square - Mid-term presentation

    Idea:

    The driving force of this project is to make Times Square into a greener, more ecologically sound environment, while unifying the essence of Times Square with it’s 400,000 visitors a day.

    Why:

    Times Square should be the Grand Gesture of New York City, re-designed to be a walking street for pedestrians, similar to Wall Street and many other walking streets of the world, creating a comfortable, safe and inviting place for New Yorkers as well as tourists.

    How:

    By closing both Broadway and 7th Ave, a Times Square without vehicular traffic will be safer, with improved air quality, storm water managed by specially designed areas and green park-like settings providing a respite from the congestion of the city.  

    Jean Galle

    3 years ago
     
  • March 19, 2010

    Based on a historical study of the last four hundred years of Manhattan’s history, the intention is to mirror the passage of time while taking hopeful steps toward what lies ahead through contemporary sustainable practices as well as to encourage movement and interaction within the plaza spaces as they relate to the past, present and future.  Each block represents a time period and the transitions between them lead to a future vision where piezoelectric technology is generated by the thousands of people who travel to and through the the American entertainment mecca that is the Times Square Corridor.

    Kathleen O’Grady

    3 years ago
     
  • March 15, 2010

    PRESENTATION 50 % WORK TO DATE

    3 years ago
     
  • 3 years ago Mannahatta

    by Yoni Brenner, The New Yorker Shouts and Murmurs

    -Melissa

     
  • March 6, 2010
    3 years ago Times Square 'Get Down'.

    Thanks to Myles Mackenzie (and GOOD Magazine) for pointing us towards a reminder us of our fair square’s pre-Disney personality.

     
  • March 5, 2010

    SHADOW STUDY — between about  1:10 - 1:20 Friday

    Jean

    3 years ago
     

  • SUN in Times Square:

    Before going up to Columbia to draw, I stopped by Times Square to wander the the side streets.  Getting off at 42nd - to see the whole space filled w/ sunlight - finally.    With the sun at my back I walked to the side streets - 44th, 45th and 46th Sts.  They were all shade and walking out of the shadows of 46th onto Broadway was a great feeling - I immediately looked up - and there was the sun - exactly as Katherine’s shadow study.   It was about 1PM for the 1st photo.  I walked east of 7th and then back to 46th trying to find the same spot for more photos of the sun.  2nd photo is at 1:15 and the 3rd about 1:25……. At 1:10 the southern block of the corridor - 44-45 was back in shadow with the TKTS stairs still in sun and everyone enjoying. I would have loved to stay and find out how long it took for the stairs to return to shadow but alas my sections were calling!

    Jean

    3 years ago
     
  • March 3, 2010

    reNEWable Times Square

    Today NYCDOT announced a competition for designers to conceive temporary surface treatments for the exact portion of Times Square we are studying and designing in our studio this semester.  The chosen designer will receive $15,000.

    Details can be found here:

    reNEWable Times Square: Designing Temporary Surface Treatments

    3 years ago
     

  • TIMES SQUARE

    LOOKING UP TO LOOK DOWN

    and

    WHAT IS REALLY BEHIND THOSE BILLBOARDS and BRIGHT LIGHTS?

    As with everyone else in Times Square, last week I spent much of my time looking up  —or looking at the tourists looking up or taking upward photos of neon lights.  A few were taking photos of each other but I am sure that “up” was the larger percentage of photos.   Mind you, a few very unhappy teenagers sitting around a table were doing that head down “don’t bother me” thing but upwards was othwerwise the mode.   Suddenly, I realized that I wanted to look down on Times Square, like the lucky few in offices with a sight line.  But is there such a thing as a downward sight line?   So, I started to look up to see where in reality I, physically, could look down and not just via Goggle Earth.

    From my earthly perch, I noticed that 1515 Broadway had trees – ah – maybe someone goes out on the terrace and tends them.  Yes, they do plus a bit more.  The 9th floor of 1515 is an “employee only terrace” that looks down over Times Square.   No luck in convincing them of my employment so onto the next possible site.  The Golden Arches come though, having a 2nd floor dining area.   So with a big Mac in hand, lunch over-looking Father McDuffy Square was an interesting experience, but not quite high enough.   So I headed across the street to the Marriot Hotel to try my luck for better views.

    Floors 8 and 9 of the Marriot have cocktail lounges.   The “back” sections of the lounges are in the “curve” of the building with large windows over looking Times Square.   These areas on 8 and 9 were both closed, but with a smile and quickly saying something about Columbia University, I got straight to the windows.   And wow, what great views, straight down, north and south.    From the perspective looking down, things seem even smaller than looking up.   The thought of finding a place to go higher, into 1 of the 700 foot high office buildings was of no interest to me - floor 9 is high enough.

    Oh, and talking about the 700 foot office buildings  —- they are higher than our “project corridor” is long…    As Jan Johnson would say – “not a very good scale” but by now we all know that.

    So what is behind most of the bright lights of Broadway?  Nothing pretty, just lots of Air Conditioning units and whatever else comes in big metal boxes where present day neon conceals 20th Century technology.

    Jean Galle

    3 years ago
     
  • February 22, 2010
    Camel Smoke Ring Billboard designed by Douglas Leigh, 1941 “Times Square is the most familiar and most frequently reproduced fragment of urban real estate on the planet.” James Traub Since its beginning just over a hundred years ago, Times Square has been through many incarnations, each one a reflection of the social and economic condition of its time. The square, which is not technically a square, has gone from being the epitome of urbanity in the early decades of the 20th century to the urban collapse of the 60s and 70s. Its revival in the early 90s, which many New Yorkers decried as the Disney-fication of Times Square, has led to its present guise as a capital of popular culture, with the corporate headquarters for such giant media companies as Condé Nast, Viacom and Reuters competing for space with the world’s busiest McDonald’s outpost and the largest Toys ‘R Us store. Yet what really attracts the thousands of tourists daily is its manifestation of global marketing, Times Square’s famous “Spectaculars,” so-called since before World War I. The first billboard on Times Square went up on Broadway in 1904, and by 1907 electric billboards began to dazzle the crowd. The most eye-catching early billboards were designed by O.J. Gude, dubbed the Sign King of Times Square, who in 1917 installed a 200-foot long spectacular on the west side of Broadway between 43rd and 44th, complete with 12 gleaming moving spearmen. Gude also cunningly joined the Municipal Arts Society, a leading opponent of big signs at the time, and influenced the city to adopt zoning ordinances that eliminated big electric signs anywhere in midtown except Times Square. The man who dominated the billboards from the mid-30s is the pioneering lighting designer Douglas Leigh. Some of his most memorable and spectacular signs for Times Square include A&P’s sign for Eight O’Clock Coffee with clouds of steam emanating from a large cup of coffee and a Camel billboard that blew smoke rings from a steam generator. For Pepsi Cola, he designed a spectacular that featured a 120-foot waterfall pumping 50,000 gallons of water a day. Leigh’s creations led to ever more innovative, colossal and dazzling displays on Times Square. Today the leading spectaculars are made up of millions of L.E.D.’s, capable of transmitting live footage and unimaginable pyrotechnics. As befitting the current environmental consciousness, 30 of the spectaculars in the area have switched to wind power via an electric supply agreement with ConEdison. The rent of these billboards, which run from $100,000 to $260,000 a month, has rendered the 1 Times Square building–the very one that lends its name to the square–empty of tenants except on the first 3 floors. The building is far more profitable to run as a billboard. With millions of people flocking to Times Square every year, and billions of people around the globe watching it daily on the news and on New Year’s Eve, advertising here has become a premium. Tourists come to gawk at the signs, which feeds their attraction for advertisers, who dream up ever more spectacular creations. But in the end, what makes this carnival of lights in Times Square different from Las Vegas? What will be the future incarnation of Times Square if it is to avoid devolving into Las Vegas? As it has done over a century, Times Square will undoubtedly change as the city of New York moves forward in the 21st century. As James Traub wrote, “The last word on Times Square will never be written.” - posted by Ngoc Minh Ngo 3 years ago

    Camel Smoke Ring Billboard designed by Douglas Leigh, 1941

    “Times Square is the most familiar and most frequently reproduced fragment of urban real estate on the planet.” James Traub

    Since its beginning just over a hundred years ago, Times Square has been through many incarnations, each one a reflection of the social and economic condition of its time. The square, which is not technically a square, has gone from being the epitome of urbanity in the early decades of the 20th century to the urban collapse of the 60s and 70s. Its revival in the early 90s, which many New Yorkers decried as the Disney-fication of Times Square, has led to its present guise as a capital of popular culture, with the corporate headquarters for such giant media companies as Condé Nast, Viacom and Reuters competing for space with the world’s busiest McDonald’s outpost and the largest Toys ‘R Us store. Yet what really attracts the thousands of tourists daily is its manifestation of global marketing, Times Square’s famous “Spectaculars,” so-called since before World War I. The first billboard on Times Square went up on Broadway in 1904, and by 1907 electric billboards began to dazzle the crowd. The most eye-catching early billboards were designed by O.J. Gude, dubbed the Sign King of Times Square, who in 1917 installed a 200-foot long spectacular on the west side of Broadway between 43rd and 44th, complete with 12 gleaming moving spearmen. Gude also cunningly joined the Municipal Arts Society, a leading opponent of big signs at the time, and influenced the city to adopt zoning ordinances that eliminated big electric signs anywhere in midtown except Times Square. The man who dominated the billboards from the mid-30s is the pioneering lighting designer Douglas Leigh. Some of his most memorable and spectacular signs for Times Square include A&P’s sign for Eight O’Clock Coffee with clouds of steam emanating from a large cup of coffee and a Camel billboard that blew smoke rings from a steam generator. For Pepsi Cola, he designed a spectacular that featured a 120-foot waterfall pumping 50,000 gallons of water a day. Leigh’s creations led to ever more innovative, colossal and dazzling displays on Times Square. Today the leading spectaculars are made up of millions of L.E.D.’s, capable of transmitting live footage and unimaginable pyrotechnics. As befitting the current environmental consciousness, 30 of the spectaculars in the area have switched to wind power via an electric supply agreement with ConEdison. The rent of these billboards, which run from $100,000 to $260,000 a month, has rendered the 1 Times Square building–the very one that lends its name to the square–empty of tenants except on the first 3 floors. The building is far more profitable to run as a billboard. With millions of people flocking to Times Square every year, and billions of people around the globe watching it daily on the news and on New Year’s Eve, advertising here has become a premium. Tourists come to gawk at the signs, which feeds their attraction for advertisers, who dream up ever more spectacular creations. But in the end, what makes this carnival of lights in Times Square different from Las Vegas? What will be the future incarnation of Times Square if it is to avoid devolving into Las Vegas? As it has done over a century, Times Square will undoubtedly change as the city of New York moves forward in the 21st century. As James Traub wrote, “The last word on Times Square will never be written.”

    - posted by Ngoc Minh Ngo

     
  • 3 years ago DOT Green Light for Midtown Evaluation Report

    DOT’s official report announcing that the partial closure of seven city blocks including Times Square to autos will be permanent.Traffic congestion goals were only met partially, with 7% overall faster traffic flow on average on 6th and 7th Avenue, but it looks like significant improvements in both pedestrian and motorist/passenger safety and positive feedback from locals outweighed traffic questions.

    - posted by Monica Hernandez

     
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