“Our Cities Ourselves”: Imagining the Future of Urban Transport

“Brooklyn Bridge Remix/Redux,” by Terreform and Michael Sorkin Studio

Today, Manhattan’s AIA Center for Architecture debuted an exhibition that envisions a new era of sustainable mobility. For “Our Cities Ourselves,” the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy invited architects to take on the evolving transportation needs of the world’s cities, which in two decades are expected to be home to 60 percent of the global population.

In the middle of the 20th century, cities across the United States
were redesigned to accommodate the car. As people flocked to the
suburbs, cities were retrofitted with highways and parking lots. Roads
expanded, public transit declined and so did our cities. In the decades
that followed, cities around the world imported this auto-dominant
urban design and began to suffer from its devastating impact. Our Cities Ourselves proposes an exciting alternative path.

The aim is to think about what sort of cities we want to live in, the
sort of street we want to walk along, and the sort of future we want
for ourselves and our children. Looking ahead, how will each of us help
create our cities for ourselves?

Though the program focuses on cities in developing countries, New York is among the 10 represented. For its contribution, Manhattan firm Terreform proposes road pricing for Lower Manhattan, bike lanes on the lower level of the Brooklyn Bridge, and public space in place of the FDR.

“Our Cities Ourselves” runs through September 11. Admission is free. Hours, location and other details are here.