Mitchell L. Moss of New York University
"Superbly designed for economic development professionals [and] urban design and planning firms."


Book Description
Battery Park City in Manhattan has been hailed as a triumph of urban design, and is considered to be one of the success stories of American urban redevelopment planning. The flood of praise for its design, however, can obscure the many lessons from the long struggle to develop the project. Nothing was built on the site for more than a decade after the first master plan was approved, and the redevelopment agency flirted with bankruptcy in 1979.
Taking a practice-oriented approach, the book examines the role of planning and development agencies in implementing urban waterfront redevelopment. It focuses upon the experience of the central actor - the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) - and includes personal interviews with executives of the BPCA, former New York mayors John Lindsay and Ed Koch, key public officials, planners, and developers. Describing the political, financial, planning, and implementation issues faced by public agencies and private developers from 1962 to 1993, it is both a

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Battery Park City in lower Manhattan has been hailed as a triumph of urban design and is considered to be one of the success stories of American urban redevelopment planning. This case study takes a practice-oriented approach, examining the role of planning and development agencies in implementing urban waterfront redevelopment. It describes the political, financial, planning and implementation issues faced by public agencies and private developers from 1962 to 1993. The study focuses upon the experience of the central actor: the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA).

FROM THE CRITICS

Journal

Gordon argues that Battery Park City is a remarkably successful urban development project, and that its implemented plan, prepared largely by Cooper Eckstut Associates, was an admiral combination of postmodern and new urbanist development.

Mitchell L. Moss

Superbly designed for economic development professionals [and] urban design and planning firms.

Booknews