This in-person program will take place at the architecture firm KPF at 11 W. 42 St. To attend in person, you must RSVP by July 6th in order to be registered with lobby security. The program will also be streamed online (you do NOT need to register for the livestream).

The goal of rezoning East Midtown – the 78-block district that stretches from East 39th to East 57th Street, from Third to Madison Avenues – was, in the words of the New York Times when it was passed in 2017, “to revitalize what was once the core of corporate activity in New York City.” Now, nine years later, we’ll revisit that history and assess the impact of East Midtown Rezoning.

First proposed by the Bloomberg administration in 2012 and ultimately adopted by the City Planning Commission and the City Council in August 2017, East Midtown Rezoning was a public policy measure designed to tip the shifting scales back from the government-subsidized competition of the new, Class A towers of Hudson Yards and Ground Zero toward the transit-rich, but aging office district anchored by Grand Central and Park Avenue – the original Terminal City.

The program brings together a panel of experts who helped frame the draft and details of the East Midtown Special District, as well as those who have designed buildings within its borders, to explain the challenges of its original intentions and to evaluate the outcomes to date. The panelists include:

Vicki Been is the Judge Edward Weinfeld Professor of Law at NYU School of Law and Co-Director, Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. Been served as Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development of the City of New York from May, 2019 to December 2021 and from 2014 tol 2017 was Commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development. She is an expert on the intersection of land use, urban policy and housing.

Dan Garodnick served as a Member of the New York City Council for Manhattan's 4th District from 2006 through 2017. He played a key role in negotiating complicated land use matters, including the rezoning of East Midtown and the Vanderbilt Corridor. From February 2022 to March 2026, Garodnick served as Director of the Department of City Planning and Chair of the City Planning Commission.

Purnima Kapur has been the Chief of University Planning and Design at Harvard University since 2021. From July 2014 through 2018, she served as the Executive Director of the City Planning Department, culminating more than two decades experience across the agency. Working closely with the Chairman and Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development, Kapur was one of the architects of the City’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing regulation, as well as an innovative plan for the redevelopment of Greater East Midtown.

James von Klemperer is President and Design Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, where he is responsible for leading the staff of over 750 architects across nine offices around the world. A major skyscraper architect, von Klemperer has designed multiple global supertalls. In Midtown Manhattan, he is the lead designer of One Vanderbilt Tower, 520 Fifth Avenue, and the planned 343 Madison Avenue.

Moderator: Carol Willis, Director, The Skyscraper Museum

11 West 42nd Street Map
212-945-6324