Coney Island Visions

With New York's Coney Island in limbo, the Center for an Urban Future has asked thinkers from a variety of fields to share their vision for Coney Island.  The Municipal Arts Society  invited the public in on the discussion. 

Reading through the vision statements, I particularly liked the contribution of Ellen Neises, associate principal of Field Operations.  She wrote, "The challenge to re-imagining Coney Island is to create a landscape that keeps it urban, mixed, fanciful, and loose.  It has to be something that's apart from the regular city, something that's sensual, that's always changing. 

"You have to respect the boardwalk, but it would be nice to draw a contemporary landscape fabric from the neighborhoods and subway stops out to the beach.  If you have the street grid and you fill up what used to be a really interesting public space with regular development -- even if it's thoughtful about putting commercial on the first floor and mixing the uses -- you'll end up with something a lot like every other good new development; it won't be especially distinctive to its place and history. Finding a different way to organize the buildings here, so that you're not just filling in the street grid, is going to be the way to honor the past, and make it feel like it is this very urban, exciting, earthy place."

Note her use of words like "fanciful," "loose," "sensual," and "earthy."

  

JSF, August 6, 2009

I have been acquainted with Ms. Neises for many years now. She's one of the most intelligent, creative, insightful and honest people I've ever had the pleasure to know. I'm not surprised you were singularly struck by her thoughtful statement.

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