Tech and Infrastructure in New York City Discussion Series

The Department of Architecture and Design of the Museum of Modern Art, New York will convene a two-part discussion series this month to consider the many ways in which the architectural and urban landscape of New York City has been impacted by the rapid expansion of the city’s tech industry. Both events are free and open to the public; space is limited and a ticket is required. Tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets can be reserved online or at the ticketing desk.

Infrastructure in Long Island City
April 24, 2019
6pm
MoMA PS1 VW Dome

Rails, traffic, ports and water systems, and schools are the physical and institutional mainstays of Long Island City infrastructure. A waterfront community, Long Island City has been redefined by the high rises and esplanade on its East River-facing coast over the past two decades. Yet the neighborhood is also bordered by other waterways, less frequently associated with the vicinity’s continuing building boom but nonetheless impacted by ongoing development—Newtown Creek chief among them. Declared a Superfund site in 2010 by the Environmental Protection Agency, the brook continues to suffer from extreme pollution and combined sewer overflow. The impending redevelopment of Sunnyside Yards, one of the country’s largest rail yards, will further impact the neighborhood’s matrix of civil infrastructure. The media spectacle around Amazon’s announced entrée and sudden departure from Long Island City has underscored the need for a broader conversation about the neighborhood, its infrastructural needs and circumstances, and its role within the ecosystem of New York City.

Speakers include Elizabeth Lusskin, President, Long Island City Partnership; Jukay Hsu, Cofounder, Pursuit, and Vice Chair, Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector Board of Directors; and Juliette Michaelson, Executive Vice President, Regional Plan Association. The conversation will be moderated by Justin Garrett Moore, Executive Director, New York City Public Design Commission.

Tech and Gentrification
April 30, 2019
6pm
Museum of Modern Art, Theater 1

In November 2018, when Amazon announced plans to build one of two new North American corporate headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, citizens, activists, and politicians raised alarm over the gentrifying effects the move might have on the neighborhood. Much as the initial announcement became a fulcrum for debates about the ethics of tax incentives for major corporations, the impact of office development on socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods, and the recent past and future of Long Island City, Amazon’s startling mid-February reversal occasioned heated debate about the broad ramifications of tech-industry expansion for New York City.

Nevertheless, since Google established its first New York offices in 2003, New York has become one of the largest and most competitive technology labor markets in the country—second only to Silicon Valley. The sheer speed and breadth of this about-face has engendered wide-reaching consequences for urban infrastructure, land values, and income distribution in New York, both expanding tax revenues and also threatening to further displace low-income residents and people of color. In facilitating this discussion, the Department of Architecture and Design seeks to provide a platform for reflecting upon the history and possible futures of the technology industry’s impact on urban planning, real estate development, and gentrification.

Speakers include James Sanders, Principal, James Sanders + Associates; Quardean Lewis-Allen, Founder, Made in Brownsville; and Laura Bliss, Staff Reporter, The Atlantic. The conversation will be moderated by Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic of The New York Times.