Released in October, 2012, the Making Midtown report provides actionable recommendations for how the City can strengthen the Garment District as a vital hub for creative production – a crucial component of a 21st century city – by way of zoning and land use regulations, programming, branding and other strategies to ensure the enduring success of the District. 

outcome

background

Few places in NYC are as underappreciated–or have a more promising future–than the Garment District. Unlike any other neighborhood in the city, the District is both the historic birthplace and the current research and development hub for American fashion. At a time when American manufacturing is once again a growth sector, the Garment District is still home to hundreds of garment manufacturers, employing roughly 7,100 patternmakers, seamstresses, graders and markers, cutters and others who help make NYC a global fashion capital – and contributing $2.1 billion dollars to the city's economy. 

Phase I of this project, called Made in Midtown, found that the Garment District is still a vibrant cluster economy: designers, patternmakers, graders, sewers, textile suppliers, button manufacturers and all others involved in translating a clothing line from idea to reality are housed within blocks–or even floors–of one another. 

As a result of Made in Midtown, city officials abandoned plans to rezone the Garment District.  However, two overarching questions remained about the neighborhood’s future at the conclusion of the first phase for us to address: "How can fashion design and garment production in midtown Manhattan sustain itself as land values increase?" and "What should the public and private sector's role be in achieving a new model for sustaining light industry in the Garment District?"  

In July 2011, we launched this second phase in partnership with CFDA to develop strategies to revitalize the Garment District as a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood with fashion design and production at its core. 

process

The Design Trust recognized that plans for the Garment District must consider the neighborhood as a whole along with its broader Midtown context, and must be developed in partnership with all of the District's key stakeholders. To do this, we assembled a new team of Project Fellows, including architects and economic development consultants, who: 

• Documented the District's built environment, including its building stock, streetscape, traffic patterns, public realm, and neighborhood identity
• Conducted a real estate, zoning, and financial analysis of the District
• Led a participatory planning process with District stakeholders, convening more than 60 property owners, city officials, manufacturers and designers to generate and test strategies to guide future development in the District
• Developed recommendations to promote NYC-made fashion, improve the District's public realm, and sustain a diverse mix of uses in the District