Long
Island City, New York City's most vibrant
mixed-use community, is located in western
Queens, across the East River from Midtown
Manhattan. Nine world-class cultural institutions
make their home in the area—Dorsky
Gallery Curatorial Programs, the Fisher
Landau Center for Art, Museum for African
Art, Museum of the Moving Image, the Noguchi
Museum, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center,
SculptureCenter, Socrates Sculpture Park,
and Thalia Spanish Theatre—as do
artisans, small manufacturers, major corporations,
and a diverse residential population.
Originally
attracted by the proximity to Manhattan
and availability of large spaces at relatively
low cost, these cultural institutions
later came to recognize that the neighborhood's
industrial character discouraged some
visitors.
The Design Trust, in partnership with
the Long Island City Cultural Alliance,
undertook a study that examined not just
physical barriers to access — such
as infrastructure, absence of transit
links, etc. — but
also the psychological barriers that
came with misperceptions of the nature
of Long Island City itself.
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Three
Design Trust fellows determined that the
concept of a pedestrian arts district was
not appropriate for Long Island City because
of the distances between cultural institutions
and the area's disorienting infrastructure.
Ultimately,
they developed a strategy that uses Long
Island City's industrial history as a cultural
asset and outlines branding concepts to
strengthen the area's identity as an arts
destination. Specific recommendations employ
unconventional urban planning tools, such
as web- or telecom-based wayfinding, underused
public transportation such as bicycle sharing,
and identity strategies that exploit Long
Island City's landscape of signage.
A resulting Design Trust publication,
Long
Island City: Connecting the Arts,
serves as a blueprint for cultural development
in the evolution of Long Island City.
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