Privately Owned Public Space

An audit by the City Comptroller’s Office reveals that 55% of POPS locations have conditions in violation of applicable legal requirements. Of these 333 POPS locations, 275 have not been inspected by the Department of Buildings in at least four years. Of the 58 inspected, 41 remain out of compliance, yet only 18 violations have been issued to 10 of those locations. The audit results are reported in a document entitled “Audit Report on the City’s Oversight over Privately Owned Public Spaces,” dated April 18, 2017. The report is accessible here. Media coverage of the report may be found in a New York Times article written by Eli Rosenberg.

Jason Sayer of The Architect’s Newspaper reports on a teach-in at one of the outdoor terraces at Trump Tower.

Read Kayden’s Boston Globe op-ed on the little bench that could.

Thomas de Monchaux, a contributor to Even Magazine, sele<a href=

Nathan Tempey of the Gothamist documents how security concerns are privatizing POPS and questions whether the balance has been correctly struck.

Michelle Young wonders in Untapped Cities whether the Trump Tower privately owned public spaces will continue to be accessible to the public given the heightened security treatment accorded the building.

Calling it an “oddity,” blogger John Hill reviews the POPS at 115 East 57th Street in anticipation of a walking tour he will be giving this spring.

Robert Rosenberger writes in The Atlantic about the management of Trump Tower’s privately owned public space.  Rosenberger notes that Trump Tower is not the only privately owned public space with problems and asks “how seriously someone, in the course of doing business, takes the agreement he or she has made with the public.”

Yoav Gonen at the New York Post, among others, reports  on the August 12, 2016 NYC OATH Hearings Division decision upholding a $10,000 civil penalty levied against Trump Tower for its failure to correct an earlier violation with regard to a sales counter illegally occupying the POPS and the failure to install a public bench. The sales counters are gone, the bench is present, and a total penalty of $14,000 hopefully brings this year-long saga to an end.

Olivia Martin of Architects Newpaper writes about the Water Street zoning amendment that authorizes owners of arcades and other POPS along Water Street to apply for permission to fill in the spaces with retail uses.  APOPS founder Jerold S. Kayden is quoted in the article as accepting that, in the case of irredeemable POPSs, it is conceivable that they could be removed from the inventory for other beneficial uses.  At the same time, he argues, owners should provide community benefits in return for the additional retail space they may receive in the Water Street case. APOPS Senior Advisor Douglas Woodward is also quoted, “Retail activation in POPS is a frequently used strategy, and some of the best and most successful POPS (e prix viagra pour homme.g. the Rubenstein Atrium at the Lincoln Center, the IBM space on 57^th Street, and 60 Wall Street) all have active retail.”