On Tuesday night at the New Museum, members of the Design Trust Council were invited to participate in a lively conversation with renowned architecture critic Paul Goldbergerand civic activist and restaurateur Danny Meyer.
The event followed up on issues raised in the last Council, which featured Malcolm Gladwell and Adam Gopnik discussing the future of New York’s ability to be the cultural and creative capital of the world. Specifically, Tuesday’s event focused on the question of how modern-day patterns of work and recreation will give form to new public and quasi-public spaces.
While there were moments of doom-and-gloom with grim a forecast of the homogenization of Manhattan (it’s only going to get less diverse), the conversation was also abound with sparks of optimistic thinking and great ideas (such as use of the piers as the final frontier for small business in NYC).
The audience included participants from the fields of architecture, design, construction, philanthropy, city agencies as well as some of our friends from the blogosphere (Bird to the North) and the press (see New York Mag’s coverage here).
My favorite question of the night came from Gregory Haley, of eOculus Magazine: To improve diversity in retail/business in the city, what about some legislation for ‘inclusionary retail’ space, much like that for inclusionary housing?
If you want to hear more, check back next week, as I will upload an .mp3 of the entire conversation for you to listen to. In the meantime, here are a few photo-highlights of the night, courtesy of Odin Cappello.
The beautiful view from the New Museum’s sky room.
DT Staff & Volunteers welcomed guests on a rainy Tuesday night.
Mr. Goldberger and Mr. Meyer engage the crowd.
Deborah Marton, Deborah Berke, Milton Puryear and Alfred Chiodo.
Questions and great ideas from the crowd.
The Lower East Side skyline made a great backdrop for a conversation about how our city is changing. 
