Leif Lomo, Director at KPF, reflects on the recent NYLON event, which explored projects to revitalize Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue and London’s Knightsbridge, prioritizing pedestrians.

How do we respond to cultural shifts that were accelerated by COVID-19, to create vibrant, resilient, and liveable city centres? The rise of homeworking and online shopping, paired with the resurgence of tourism, demands a fresh look at how city centres work.   Creating a balanced mix of uses—moving away from mono-functional central business districts towards central social districts—will be crucial, with the public realm playing a key role in the success of our cities. 

A recent NYLON event explored projects that aim to reinvigorate Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue and Knightsbridge in London, reprioritising streets in favour of pedestrians. Knightsbridge and Fifth Avenue represent two of the greatest shopping streets in the world, but they are overwhelmed by their popularity and competing needs. Both initiatives address complicated questions such as who the land should serve, why, and how. Similarities and difference in approach provide lessons for future projects.

Cannon Ivers of LDA Design set the tone for the discussion, highlighting a global movement to rebalance streets and cities, creating ecosystems that support exchange and interconnectedness. 

From New York, Isabel Castilla, Field Operations, presented Future of Fifth, a proposal to rebalance a section of the avenue in favour of pedestrians. Currently, Fifth Avenue suffers from a poor public realm dominated by through traffic and narrow sidewalks. Pedestrians account for almost 70% of the avenue’s users, but just 30% of the space is dedicated to them. Castilla highlighted the opportunity to expand sidewalks and introduce planting and street furniture, improving the experience of the public realm while reinforcing the linear character of a New York avenue, integrating the storefronts and creating places where people will linger. 

Dan Johnson, from the Knightsbridge Partnership, highlighted a similar effort in London. Knightsbridge, as Johnson explained, is both a route and a place – but its role as a route has been allowed to dominate. Intensive engagement and community co-design identified areas where the neighbourhood is failing as well as opportunities to improve the pedestrian experience, integrate planting and improve accessibility and security. In contrast to New York, and responding to the London context, plans focussed more organically on side pockets of space. 

A panel discussion moderated by Larisa Ortiz, of Streetsense in New York, highlighted similarities in approach and anticipated outcomes. Madelyn Wils of the Fifth Avenue Association explained the important role that the avenue plays in New York’s economy, providing more than 300,000 direct and indirect jobs. Johnson agreed, explaining that the plans for Knightsbridge could create up to 700 new local jobs. In each case, the key role that Business Improvement Districts play in the transformation of the urban realm was emphasised.  

Data collection and analysis were key to defining the scope of each project. Alexis Taylor from the NY Economic Development Corporation, explained that after identifying pedestrians as the biggest user group, improving their experience became central to the Future of Fifth project. Both Johnson and Taylor highlighted the need to zoom out and consider the traffic network as one connected system. 

The integration of landscaping is key to both proposals. In addition to creating a pleasant environment, carefully considered landscaping and tree planting provide nature-based solutions, helping to improve thermal comfort, reduce air pollution, provide stormwater mitigation and support biodiversity. 

At KPF, our mission as architects and urbanists is to elevate cities through impactful design.  We strongly believe in the role dense, well-balanced, mixed-use districts can have in creating sustainable, liveable, and economically vibrant communities. As programme champions for NLA’s City Dialogues, we are dedicated to supporting cross-city conversations, to enable experts from around the world to share best practice and learn from each other to identify solutions for some of the 21st century’s most challenging problems.