Real l Estate
This past November, activists marked the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street at Lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, which is a POPS, or privately
owned public space.
Contest for one logo to rule all the POPS plazas
BY ROSE ADAMS
The city wants to add some pop to its POPS — privately
owned public spaces, that is.
Mayor de Blasio, the Department of City Planning,
Advocates for Privately Owned Public Space and
the Municipal Art Society are holding a competition for
a new logo to be displayed at more than 550 POPS citywide.
These privately owned atriums, plazas and arcades
have provided New Yorkers with public indoor and outdoor
space for decades. Created under the 1961 zoning
resolution, the POPS program incentivizes developers to
build publicly accessible spaces in exchange for increased
fl oor area.
“When you have an incredibly dense city like New
York, there understandably is a desire for places that
provide a little respite from the density,” said Jerold Kayden,
a Harvard professor of urban planning and design
and president of Advocates for Privately Owned Public
Space.
The POPS program has created around 3.8 million
square feet of public space around the city — equal to
roughly 24 Union Squares. Some better known POPS
include Lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park and Lincoln
Center’s Rubinstein Atrium.
The logo competition, launched in January, comes after
the City Council passed a law in 2017 requiring POPS
to post signage detailing the space’s hours, amenities and
owners. These signs will also display the winning logo.
“The POPS logo design competition is a unique opportunity
for one creative symbol to unify all POPS
locations,” said Councilmember Rafael Salamanca, the
Council’s Land Use Committee chairperson.
Participants can submit their designs to the competition’s
Web site by Fri., March 15. Submissions will be
This wall mounting — at Big Screen Plaza at Kimpton’s Hotel Eventi, at Sixth Ave. between 29th
and 30th Sts. — sporting the Department of City Planning tree logo, signifies that it is a POPS,
or privately owned public space. The city is currently searching for a new, better logo for the
hundreds of POPS around town.
on view at a public event in March, where visitors will
vote for their favorites. Three fi nalists — chosen by the
public vote and a panel of judges — will be announced
May 20 and win $2,000. The Department of City Planning’s
director will then select a winner who will win an
FILE PHOTO
extra $2,000.
To fi nd a POPS near you, see https://www1.nyc.gov/
site/planning/plans/city-wide.page
For more information about the logo design competition,
visit the www.popslogo.nyc.
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