FLATIRON — The upcoming Flatiron plaza redesign should include an expansion of the public space and measures to make it safer for pedestrians, according to locals at a workshop dedicated to gathering ideas for the area's redevelopment.
Participants huddled over printed maps of the plaza on Tuesday, pitched ideas and sounded off about the permanent redesign of the Flatiron pedestrian plaza, which stretches from 23rd Street to 25th Street and is centered around the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue.
Among the main points that emerged were a need for more separated bike lanes, street crossings that are less confusing, and according to several participants, the city needs to go all in to make it the plaza even bigger.
Echoing the suggestions of several other workshoppers, resident Alexander Von Radeboj suggested completely closing Broadway to vehicles to allow for easier pedestrian flow throughout the plaza.
“This space deserves to be a great public space,” said Von Radeboj, who lives near the plaza. “New York needs to have the courage to build a real pedestrian plaza, completely for pedestrians.”
Closing Broadway would necessitate thorough traffic studies by the Department of Transportation, but at this stage all ideas are on the table, according to Jennifer Brown, president of the Flatiron Partnership/23rd Street BID, which organized the meeting along with the DOT and the Madison Square Park Conservancy.
“We’re considering everything, and if that’s a consistent theme then the agency will take the opportunity to study it and see if it’s a go,” Brown said. “We have an open slate right now.”
The plaza dates back to a 2008 reconfiguration of several parts of the Broadway corridor, and was built as a temporary design made from non-permanent materials like concrete barriers, above-ground tree planters and low-quality epoxy gravel.
The workshop was the first step in a public review process that will ultimately lead to a complete redesign of the plaza, with construction scheduled to begin in the fall of 2017 and be completed by the fall of 2019.
