Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership and NYC DOT to Unveil New ‘NoMad Piazza Pop Up’
Sep 29, 2021
– Part of the Broadway Vision Plan, the pop-up space opens October 1 on Broadway, between 25th Street and 27th Street, complementing NoMad’s thriving outdoor dining –
(New York, N.Y.) – Today the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership, the American Institute of Architects, New York (AIANY), and the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) will open the NoMad Piazza Pop Up on the Broadway roadbed between 25th Street and 27th Street. Part of DOT’s Broadway Vision plan, the pop-up space will be open through early November, with new public seating, tables, trees, planters, and granite blocks forming the pedestrian intersection entrances. The project builds upon the success of DOT’s Open Streets program, including the Open Streets in Flatiron and NoMad that the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership has managed since May 2020.
The NoMad Piazza Pop Up will be open for pedestrians and bicyclists, but motor vehicle traffic—other than emergency vehicles—will be prohibited. The newly designed space will complement the thriving outdoor dining scene on and around these two blocks of Broadway where La Pecora Bianca, The Smith, Num Pang, Tortazo, and wagamama offer al fresco dining under DOT’s Open Restaurants program.
Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership will manage the space with services including cleaning, maintenance, and public safety. The Partnership is working with neighborhood businesses and cultural institutions to provide light public programming throughout the month.
“We are excited to offer this serene spot, next to some of the city’s most dynamic outdoor dining, where people can meet up with friends, relax, and enjoy the fall weather,” said James Mettham, Executive Director of the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership. “The NoMad Piazza Pop Up builds on the success of the Open Streets and Open Restaurants programs in our district, along with our commitment to creative public realm improvements that will help our neighborhood recover from the impacts of the pandemic. We are grateful to DOT, AIANY, Community Board 5, the NoMad Alliance, and other local stakeholders for collaborating with us.”
“This is another wonderful addition to what is becoming the heart of Open Streets along Broadway in Manhattan,” said DOT Commissioner Hank Gutman. “Our fellow New Yorkers are embracing these new open spaces, which are helping to support the restaurant industry while also getting folks out of their cars. I want to thank the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership for being excellent partners as we continue to transform our streetscape.”
The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership worked closely with Future Streets—a group of architects, landscape architects, and planners sponsored by the AIANY, American Society of Landscape Architects, New York Chapter (ASLA-NY), and the American Planning Association, New York Metro Chapter (APA-NYM)—to develop ideas for how the public right-of-way, property line to property line, could be repositioned for a more equitable, sustainable, and safer pedestrian environment.
The creation of the NoMad Piazza Pop Up in the northern section of the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership’s Business Improvement District (BID) service area comes three months before the January 2022 expansion of the BID’s boundaries—including a northward expansion from 28th Street to 31st Street along Broadway and Sixth Avenue.
“The NoMad Piazza Pop Up’s location near our BID expansion area builds momentum for the upcoming extension of our supplemental services to the northern parts of NoMad,” explained Mettham. “This project offers the greater NoMad community a taste of what’s to come from the Partnership’s public space management.”
The new seasonal plaza is the latest step in DOT’s Broadway Vision plan to expand public space, enhance pedestrian safety, and increase accessibility on Broadway between Columbus Circle and Union Square. It is also part of DOT’s Seasonal Streets program, which transforms streets into pedestrian-priority spaces that deliver public space at more precise times to address pedestrian peaks.
The project reflects the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership’s long-term vision of a pedestrian-focused Broadway corridor through Flatiron and NoMad, which has also included the construction of the Flatiron Public Plazas in 2009; Manhattan’s first Shared Street, from 24th to 25th Street, which was unveiled in 2017; and the Flatiron Slow Block project, which recently transformed Broadway between 21st Street and 23rd Street into a more people-friendly corridor earlier this year.
