Soldiering On

How the pandemic changed the real estate business in the Big Apple.

- Olha Romanuik

With the pandemic serving as an accelerant of change, New York City’s design community seeks solutions in creating a resilient built environment.

As the pandemic ripped through New York City, much like in any other cities, most of the urban life has ceased to exist in a traditional way to which people were accustomed. As NYC’s urbanites are continuing to learn on the go on how to adapt to the new mode of living, urbanists, architects, and planners are rethinking how the city might need to change to survive and thrive in the post pandemic times.

Beyond re-examining the healthcare system, an important area of the pandemic-related design research concerns the adaptation and reconfiguration of the everyday public realms, like parks, workplaces, cultural and social spaces. While in the late summer of 2020, New York City was successful in reducing the transmission of the coronavirus, the threat never fully went away, and new cases spiked in numbers after and into 2021. Urban planners, architects and city officials are learning and applying lessons from both the negative and positive changes brought about by the pandemic to build a resilient New York of tomorrow.

THE POST-PANDEMIC STREET

Social interactions are a major driver in city life. New York’s streets have often brought out the very heart of the city that makes it like no other in the world. To be In line, New York’s transportation plans for moving around safely, efficiently, and sustainably have resulted in some of the most ambitious policies to date.