Produced in partnership with the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC), this detailed handbook describes practices for creating sustainable city streets, sidewalks, utilities, and urban landscaping. Although the primary audience for the publication is the NYC Department of Design and Construction, the Guidelines are also a resource for planners, designers, engineers, public officials and anyone else involved in constructing, operating or maintaining the right-of-way. 

"Much of our Street Design Manual was directly inspired and informed by the High Performance Infrastructure Guidelines, itself an indispensable reference on designing and building streets intelligently." 
- New York City Department of Transportation, 2013

The best practices outlined in the High Performance Infrastructure Guidelines address air-quality improvement, mitigation of the urban heat island effect, noise pollution, hydrologic disruption from development, ecological and vegetation health, and overall health and quality-of-life opportunities, as well as life-cycle cost effectiveness.

Part 1 focuses on the overall benefits and precedents for building high-performance infrastructure. 

Part 2 describes the current process in the City of New York and outlines near- and long-term performance objectives.

Part 3 specifies best practices (BMPs) for sustainable construction in the public right-of-way. Topics include:

• Site assessment
  
• Streetscape
• Pavement
• Utility
• Stormwater Management
• Landscape
• Construction Practices