Founding Partner Alexander Cooper, FAIA, will participate in a full-day program “Zoning at 100: A Symposium for the Future,” Thursday, September 15, at the New York City Bar Association.
Alex will speak at 9:45 a.m., as part of a panel discussing “The Record of the 1916 and 1961 New York City Zoning Resolutions,” which were born out of concerns for light and air at street level and building density and open space, respectively. His experience with these laws and their effect on the built environment of NYC is unparalleled. A former NYC Planning Commissioner with the John Lindsay administration and the Director of the Urban Design Program at Columbia University GSAPP in the 1970s, Alex later served as the architect and urban designer of some of the city’s most pivotal public projects, including the Battery Park City master plan, 42nd Street Redevelopment, and the original Hudson Yards plan and zoning.
The event, which will explore how zoning may be deployed in New York and around the world to create more equitable, productive, sustainable, and livable cities, will begin with a welcome by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and opening remarks by program co-chairs Carl Weisbrod, Director of the NYC City Planning Department and Chair of the NYC Planning Commission, and Jerold S. Kayden, Professor of Urban Planning and Design at Harvard University GSD.