How an Architect Redesigns NYC Streets | WIRED 

This video missed the opportunity to visualize how much the streets changed. It was hard to truly appreciate what had changed when all that was shared were rough sketches and 5-second clips.

I love the concept of this video but the execution missed for me. I got really confused by her sketches that we barely saw Give her different coloured pens, use colour coding for car lanes/pavements/bike lanes etc, use animation to show one on top of the other... Would love to see another video on this topic that really focused on what the changes were.

I wish NYC and cities around america had more pedestrian-only streets, or areas like the highline, where you can walk around without dealing with cars.

I recommend the channel Not Just Bikes that goes into detail what makes a streets and neighbourhoods good or bad.

Very interesting subject but what a terrible editing was done to this video. Everytime the archictect tried to point out the design flaws in that sketch the video was cut to show her full body wth?

Even though this is an improvement, the planning still scares me. The US needs to take a good look at how European cities create harmony between vehicles, commuters and pedestrians.

Term bad street could be replaced by Stroad.

I love city planning videos, makes me want to go back to school at 35 y/o to study this. ❤️

I personally love the redesign of all three of these intersections, especially the thoughtfulness around pedestrian safety, places to congregate, and the added green space. I walked down Cooper Square recently and was blown away at how much more peaceful it was to cross the street than 10 years ago!

I'm a Dutch architect/urban planner and this scares me. So many opportunities missed. Don't get me wrong I think she did a phenomenal job, but just the general car-based attitude that unfortunately still prevails (even though the new designs are DEFINITELY improvements to this)... So many things I took for granted or logical to anyone I'm realising aren't haha. Thanks to videos like this and Not Just Bikes.

I wish this video actually showed how the streets were redesigned.

In Architecture school we had a project that was on such a complicated site traffic wise that we took 2/4 months of our semester redesigning the traffic patterns… I’ve never underestimated urban designers and traffic engineers ever since 😂

If you drive a car in NYC voluntarily, you’re insane

it would help if you actually had side by side comparisons up for a decent mount of time so we could compare. poorly edited.

Good improvements. Still missing protected cycling paths, especially in such a busy city as NYC.

I used to cross Cooper Union all the time. I remember the pre-2017 crossings. They were quite dangerous. I would avoid going down that way and cross Third Avenue way up by Astor Place. Now it's a delight to cross Cooper Union. I didn't realize this was the lady responsible for such a huge transformation. I was very pleased that that big two-lane road to the left/west was turned into a small road with one lane. Really improved the feel of the area.

This is great… street architecture is the professional perspective I didn’t know I needed to be aware of, until now. There’s plenty of streets/intersections in my city that need some redesign, that’s for sure.

It would be interesting to hear what those people affected by the redesigns think (like bus drivers, ...)

Sounds good, would like to see the streets now. Need to google it since it wasnt shown in the video

I would watch a feature length film on this topic! So interesting!

The hardest part of Arquitecture is NOT finding the solution, it's coming up with the budget that CAN be approved.

Let the girl talk... It felt like it was really rushed when editing. I love city planning stuff but half of the content was poorly delivered :/

This was a little confusing to follow in its editing. It feels like a much longer explanation was cut down until it didn't make much sense any more

Great story here. I hope street re-designs can continue to help drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists-- plus add beauty to the area.

Love to check these places out sometime soon.

The 1940s was the beginning of bad urban planning in Canada and in the United States. The gov of Toronto needs to turn streets into paths and turn roads into streets, build electric tramlines and railroads for public transport, and turn single residential zones into mixed use high density zones. Also, demolish the highways and remove minimum parking space requirements.

I LOVE the architecture series!

it’s interesting that streets are designed beyond their function as transitional spaces, never thought about it like that but it seems so obvious now i’ve seen the process

It’s so crazy too see the street right next to my apartment and see the thoughts that went into how they formed

The supporting commentary would have been helpful if it were not for the substance of the video being totally lost in fleeting glimpses of blurry sketch papers.

awesome thx for the vid!!!

That’s crazy and interesting never thought about that before

It’s so satisfying to see the beautification

Astor Place could've been where a roundabout can be placed, it looks possible too.

I would love to see how a biking/pedestrian "highway" though a city would effect the nature of a city. Basically a park like area with walking and biking lanes and no cars instead of a street.

TL;DW - If you want to improve roads, get rid of the roads.

Absolutely brilliant video, more like this please!

What a great video! This was so interesting.

I really wouldn’t know how to do her job, she explains it so effortlessly on photos but I didn’t understand anything 😂

"Completely car-focused", welcome to America!! Elon musk says just one more lane!

Great video

I wish my city and more others had the kind of dense city feel you really only see in NYC.

Makes me feel grateful to live in London

The voice over interjections were mostly unnecessary. Would have been better to just let the expert talk.

Way to go!!

"Roadbad" love this!!

I loved this video

What many dont realise is that Architecture is very impactful on the daily lives we live in. for example the roads the amount of accidents that will happen on here, The travel time for first responders, the avaliability for bake lanes and parking, the space for future developments like businesses or residentials, the space dedicated for nature and parks allowing for community to be bult and expanded upon, The amount of population within that area. City planners have to think about multiple factors and its really cool to see how over time we improve on the ideas of roads and architecture.

Interesting.

I use to hang out in the cube every night back in the late 90's. No one respected the streets and cars it was a free for all, I'm curious and would love to go back and see the change

the reason why i stopped playing the game City skyline, designing road is really really hard and difficult

Well done

This video doesn't tell me anything since it doesn't go into detail about: 1. How they approached these issues; 2. Came to the conclusion that these remodels would be better/more efficient; 3. The result of said improvements. Also title is misleading since it was just explanations of what "the company" did, not, as said before, the process.

5:07 theres a guy living in that cube!

How on Earth did she figure Astor Place? That was tough!

Very good

3:00 Is it just me, or Cooper Sq is still wide enough for 2 lanes of traffic plus on-street parking? Isn't it supposed to be street with only one lane?

nice, but what about bike lanes? there were none included in these nice projects?

Yo I literally just wrapped on an architectural degree project near Astor Place and Cooper Union and we were critiquing how the street design there has discouraged skateboarding. Interesting to here a more positive take.

Perfect ❤

the film editing is horrible, while the guest is drawing and explaining her design motives, the screen keeps switching between the drawing and the guest.

It's really amazing to watch IRL Cities Skyline videos. lmao

Absolutely love the idea of this video but the execution wasn’t great. It was hard to follow the improvements that were made. Some animation or motion media showing which way traffic flows or where pedestrian zones are would’ve been great.

Interesting

Make a video about John Goodman answering the Internet's most asked questions!

Ms Weisz I wish I could pay you to redesign the new Colorado Springs intersections 😭

It’s not good enough. New York should have even more walkable spaces.

I had no idea road's even changed

Please fix 10 Ave in midtown. it doesn’t have a bike lane, is very dangerous.

The editor didn't pay enough attention to the sketches

Great

🙂sidewalks!

Very Nice Bro! Get Good People!

Claire Weisz, come to Miami and fix our streets please

Looks a lot like what Janette Sadik-Khan was trying to do. Cans of paint and some lawn chairs can convert dead car only zones into vibrant pedestrian malls.

dear editor, this video was hard to watch - i barely understood any of her thoughts because of the jump cuts wtf

The visuals were very confusing. You talk about the streets like I live in NYC, when I have no idea what your talking about.

Streets should meet at right angles, even is that means bending them. Triangles should lose their longest leg. Low traffic streets should be shut down to car traffic, especially if they lead to more complex intersections. It isn't that hard.

good

You mean civil engineer

Maybe let someone guide some American urban designers through cities in The Netherlands for some inspiration...

The editing of this video was awful-everytime she's sketching something out they cut to a pointless shot of her looking down at what she's sketching. This could've been more effective as a podcast...

Where is the bicycle infrastructure?

Why do cars get this almost holy access to air? What is so special that makes a car be able to see the moon at night? It doesn't seem to be an issue running a street inside a building. It's done all the time in tunnels and parking garages. Leave the sky for pedestrians and move the roads into the buildings.

Some of these streets shes talking about need traffic control guards . Other wise they will never move. 👍🏻

They need to tax vehicles coming into downtown NYC. The less cars, the better.

Noted

If you would like a good channel for urban infrastructure design look up 'not just bikes'. It's great!!

They played cities skylines

coulda just made a roundabout

👏👏👏👏

It’s weird to see street architect draw traffic direction the wrong way. Probably one of the issues with street redesign

Some third world countries have cities that were planned so badly in the past 25 years, it would take a miracle to solve them. They should get her help.

Amateurs! ~The Dutch

can you guys normalize the audio? i have to turn it up to hear the architect and turn it down to hear the narrator at a reasonable volume. and why is this ancient woman using upsppeak?

3:34 lmao hearing that as a european 😂

Others have already commented on the terrible editing in this like how we can't tell what the architect is talking about because of the camera angle. I'm more concerned with the rapidly flashing images that happen THREE SEPARATE TIMES in the beginning of the video. Please never do this again. It physically hurt to see and it served literally no purpose.

is she wearing issey??

You can fix most streets by 1) getting rid of all/most car lanes 2) adding protected bike lanes 3) widening sidewalks

It's becoming obvious that the push made by the auto industry in the early-mid 1900s to build more car-focused infrastructure had a lot of negative consequences for people. Namely, more focus on roads and more lanes for cars as opposed to more green spaces, parks, and areas friendly to pedestrians and cyclists. I'd love to see something as extreme as just entirely ripping up a fraction of the streets and avenues of NYC and replacing car lanes with parks, green spaces, and pedestrian/bicycle only areas. Cars should be second class citizens in densely populated cities -- they are loud, inefficient, pollute the air, and are dangerous to people. Taxis/Ubers and delivery trucks seem welcome and necessary, though. But the more we invest in green spaces and pedestrian and cycling areas, the more desirable these areas become to hang out in and the less people will want to drive in NYC anyway.