Titled ‘Principles of good urban design’, the guidebook will support New Yorkers from all walks of life to help shape their neighbourhoods around ideas and concepts conducive to healthy, sustainable urban living.

“With these ‘Principles of Good Urban Design’, we’re providing the public with a roadmap to improve the way our city looks and feels,” said Department of City Planning director Dan Garodnick. “Through these resources, we can all work together to get to ‘yes’ on a more dynamic, greener, and more welcoming city.”

Dr Sarah Sayeed, chair and executive director at New York City Civic Engagement Commission, welcomed the focus on co-design and public engagement. “By centring communities and embracing their diverse perspectives in urban planning we can ensure their needs and aspirations shape the spaces designed for them,” she remarked. “This process of co-designing is critical for trust between communities and government.”

New York City executive director for housing Leila Bozorg agreed, saying: “Every New Yorker deserves to engage in the decisions and processes that impact the design and liveability of their neighbourhood. I'm thrilled to see NYC Planning release these principles, as they will serve as an important tool to help democratise the language of urban design, ultimately allowing more voices to shape our city's future.”

Shared values and language

According to the DCP, the principles help democratise this aspect of planning with a set of shared values and language, through which all New Yorkers can evaluate, discuss and advocate for meaningful, lasting changes that improve the city’s urban landscape.

The four principles are:

• enhance people’s daily lives – including with accessible, safe, high-quality public spaces;
• care for a neighbourhood’s history, culture, and identity – including by celebrating existing community spaces or natural resources;
• embrace New York City’s dynamism – including with building designs that harmonise with older architecture; and
• confront society’s greatest challenges – including with resilient and public health-focused design decisions.

Each of these principles can have an impact on parts of the city that New Yorkers experience in their daily lives: how space is used on a sidewalk; how parks and open space are laid out; how store fronts and ground floors of apartments interact with the public realm; and how architecture helps determine the character of a neighbourhood.

The release of the guidebook is viewed as a significant expansion of the initial guidelines, published in 2017. In the latest edition, DCP has translated the principles into a thorough, practical manual, which can be applied to nearly any planning discussion in New York’s five major boroughs.

Elijah Hutchinson, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice, said the guidebook would help in the fight against climate change. “As New York City continues to execute complex coastal infrastructure and other climate projects while building in play, community, and open space access, this guidebook will be a critical tool,” he said. “Most important, it can be used by community leaders to advocate for air, noise, and extreme heat mitigation, which is especially important for those disproportionately burdened by climate hazards.”

Commissioner Thomas Foley, from the New York City Department of Design and Construction, believes the guidebook will help New Yorkers for generations to come. “As the City’s chief design and construction manager, it’s our priority to deliver the best-in-class public works that enhance communities, and we know the importance of working with and taking into consideration the needs and opinions of our City’s vibrant and diverse communities,” he said. “This guidebook will be an important resource to better create urban design and we thank DCP for this in-depth tool.”

Urban design is said to play an important role in several DCP initiatives. In its ‘City of Yes for Economic Opportunity’ proposal, urban design is a focus for streetscape updates that provide more flexibility in some areas struggling to reach transparency goals and provide more predictability in other areas to ensure safe and active commercial corridors. And in its ‘City of Yes for Housing Opportunity’, which looks to create more housing in every neighbourhood, urban design supports a thoughtful crafting of building envelopes that respond to their surroundings.

The ‘Principles of Good Urban Design’ guidebook was informed by input from New Yorkers, who shared their thoughts via an interactive website launched in 2021. Much of the feedback DCP received reflected not only current urban design successes but also the challenges of a city recovering from the worst effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on public life.