POPS | 6sqft

NYC's best spots for Thanksgiving takeout

$2.35M Gramercy co-op wraps classic pre-war style with vintage opulence–plus a key to the park

20 places to volunteer in NYC this holiday season

See Snøhetta’s lush public garden now open at 550 Madison Avenue

All photos courtesy of Barret Doherty unless otherwise noted

November 17, 2022

See Snøhetta’s lush public garden now open at 550 Madison Avenue

By Aaron Ginsburg

The new public garden at Philip Johnson's 550 Madison Avenue building opened this week, the final component of the postmodern landmark's renovation led by the Olayan Group. Designed by Snøhetta, the lush privately-owned public space (POPS) is located adjacent to 550 Madison in a formerly enclosed mid-block passageway. Increasing the public space at the site by 50 percent, the half-acre garden is now the largest in Midtown East.
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December 19, 2016

The problem with privately owned public spaces (‘POPS’) and how we can improve them

By Michelle Sinclair Colman

The Atlantic and the New York Times recently exposed the privately owned public spaces (known as “POPS”) in the Trump Tower as being far from “public.” As both journalists demonstrated, most of the Trump Tower public spaces were either cordoned off or non-existent, most notably, the case of the missing bench. A long bench was […]

June 22, 2016

City Will Allow Landlords to Convert Lower Manhattan Public Spaces to Retail

By Michelle Cohen

6sqft recently covered the controversial proposal by the Alliance for Downtown New York (ADNY), the Department of City Planning (DCP), and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), to change zoning laws to allow property owners in the Water Street Subdistrict of lower Manhattan–at One New York Plaza, for example–to bring in retail tenants like restaurants and clothing stores in exchange for making improvements and upgrades to the public plazas and arcades adjacent to their buildings. Crains reports that the City Council passed a bill Tuesday that would allow the Financial District landlords to convert the public corridors in front of 20 buildings in the Water Street corridor to retail shops. The public corridors, which cover ten blocks, were created when the Water Street buildings that abut them were built. Building developers agreed to create the public arcades and walkways in exchange for more buildable square footage.
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February 1, 2016

Why Is There a Sixth-and-a-Half Avenue in Midtown?

By Michelle Cohen

If you've never heard of it, that may be because this quarter-mile, pedestrian-only street is nearly hidden among the office towers of Midtown. Sixth-and-a-Half Avenue was the first fractional street in the city’s grid system, created in 2012 by the Department of Transportation to encourage people to use the public plazas and covered areas that form a path between 51st Street to 57th Street.
So where is it?

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NYC's best spots for Thanksgiving takeout

$2.35M Gramercy co-op wraps classic pre-war style with vintage opulence–plus a key to the park

20 places to volunteer in NYC this holiday season

See Snøhetta’s lush public garden now open at 550 Madison Avenue

The problem with privately owned public spaces (‘POPS’) and how we can improve them

City Will Allow Landlords to Convert Lower Manhattan Public Spaces to Retail

Why Is There a Sixth-and-a-Half Avenue in Midtown?

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