Municipal Art Society

457 Madison Avenue.

The Municipal Art Society of New York, founded in 1893, is a non-profit membership organization that fights for intelligent urban planning, design and preservation through education, dialogue and advocacy in New York City.

On January 20, 2010, MAS relocated from its longtime home in the historic Villard Houses on 457 Madison Avenue to the equally famed Steinway Hall on West 57th Street (across the street and east of Carnegie Hall). The MAS website currently lists their address as 488 Madison Avenue, Suite 1900.

History

Fifth Avenue memorial to architect Richard Morris Hunt, founder of the Municipal Art Society

MAS’s advocacy efforts have shaped the city a great deal since its inception in 1893. Some of their early accomplishments include passing the city's first zoning laws, contributing input to the planning of the city’s subway line, and commissioning public art throughout the city.

By the 1950s, scores of notable Manhattan buildings were lost to redevelopment around the city, and the mission of MAS broadened to include historical preservation. In 1956, the Society successfully lobbied for the passage of the Bard Law, which for the first time allowed cities to take aesthetics, history, and cultural associations into account for zoning laws. The law, named after longtime MAS board member and chief advocate, Albert S. Bard, provided a legal foundation for the New York City Landmarks Law, enacted in 1965.

In 1965, public outrage over the destruction of Pennsylvania Station and the Brokaw Mansion helped fuel the Society's mission towards preservation. With like-minded groups, they finally succeeded in establishing New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission, and New York's Landmarks Law.

In 2001, after the demise of Trans World Airlines, the original Trans World Flight Center, completed in 1962 and designed by Eero Saarinen, fell into disuse. During this period, the Municipal Art Society succeeded in 2004 in nominating the facility to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of the 11 Most Endangered Places.[1]

In June 2007, MAS released with the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance a new documentary about the future of the New York waterfront titled City of Water. In September 2007, the Society opened a major exhibition about Jane Jacobs sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation.

In May 2008, MAS released a series of renderings showing what the unfinished Atlantic Yards project might look like titled "Atlantic Lots".

In October 2008, MAS launched a new initiative to develop bold new ideas for Coney Island titled ImagineConey.

Recent projects

See also

References

  1. ↑ "TWA Terminal Named as One of the Nation’s Most Endangered Places". Municipal Art Society New York, February 9th, 2004.
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