Over the summer, Simon David, Founding Principal of OSD design firm and Parsons BFA Architecture professor, has been working on an open street plan for the Flatiron Business District together with a couple of students from his New Green Deal spring 2020 studio. Studying pedestrian patterns during the pandemic has become key to understanding how social distancing and the need for public spaces such as Madison Square Park can be compatible with attempts to support local businesses and give them a chance to thrive.

“We know where people are gathering, we know where there may be areas of incessant concentration that we could work to provide a more distributed or diffused public space. We could also take these scenarios and maybe they can be of use for bringing people back into the district in a safe way,” David says.

The plan shows bike and pedestrian routes to outdoor dining and retail that could be employed in a piecemeal fashion in addition to the Open Restaurants initiative aimed at helping local eateries to stay afloat amidst restrictions.

More information can be found here.