The Rockefeller Foundation is now taking nominations for the second annual Jane Jacobs Medal. The Municipal Art Society administers the medal, which goes to "two living individuals whose creative vision for the urban environment has significantly contributed to the vibrancy and variety of New York City."

Last year's winners were Barry Benepe, pioneer of New York City's Greenmarkets program, and Omar Freilla, founder of Greenworker Cooperatives in the Bronx.

There's more about the award here.

At a panel discussion last night on development in the city, multiple community organizers and the Reverend Calvin Butts, pastor of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, criticized the process of forming community benefits agreements (CBAs) in order to bolster public and governmental support for large development projects.

The tool seems to be a technique increasingly favored by developers of controversial projects, who negotiate with members of the community, agreeing to include in the CBAs provisions for things such as affordable housing and local jobs.  read more »

Even the developers at a Municipal Art Society panel held Tuesday night seemed a little overwhelmed by the popularity of New York and its consequences—and these were developers, speaking on what could be called “Developers Night” in the series of programs held in conjunction with the Jane Jacobs exhibit.

Douglas Durst, co-president of The Durst Organization, declared that congestion was significantly adding to construction costs by delaying deliveries and complicating logistics. (Just you try to get that concrete to its destination before it hardens.) Greg O’Connell, the Red Hook developer, complained—if it could be called complaining—that his buildings were fully rented and he could no longer accommodate his retail or industrial tenants when they want to expand. At one point, New York Times reporter Charles Bagli, who was moderating, squirmed in his seat while recounting a lengthy trip through the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues in Brooklyn on a Saturday afternoon. (“What an idiot I was…. And then driving back, we were like lemmings: We went back through!”)

Perhaps it says something that the one participant who seemed most gung-ho about the success of New York City spends a lot of time outside of the five boroughs: Eugenie Birch, a former New York City planning commissioner and current head of the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. “Go to Philadelphia," she said. "It’s a wonderful city, but they would die to have the problems that we have.”

Um, we did try to go there once, but you know, as W.C. Fields said, it was closed.

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Brookfield Properties, a giant landlord that keeps a lower profile than some of the city’s single-engine developers, did not come into the West Side Rail Yards competition with an anchor tenant. It did, however, come in with a whole bevy of design firms—seven in all—that proceeded to break just about every rule or convention that was set out for them.

The result is a plan that—forgive the hypothetical—Jane Jacobs would like (online here). It reinstitutes part of the street grid on the two massive superblocks between 30th and 33rd streets. Hotels create a street wall along 11th Avenue where other plans prescribe a park. The intent, according to Brookfield, is to link the new neighborhood with the rest of the city—including with a parcel Brookfield is developing on the eastern side of 10th Avenue.  read more »

After The Death and Life of Great American Cities came out in 1961, Robert Moses returned the copy he had received to its publisher, with instructions to sell the "libelous" monograph to somebody else. (The letter, mentioned in a recent New York Times review of the Jane Jacobs exhibit up now at the Municipal Art Society, is on display there.) The publisher did, to quite a few people. According to Vintage Books, the book's paperback publisher, Jacobs' work has sold more than 500,000 copies.

That number outpaces not just Mr. Moses’ own books (none of which appear to remain in print), but also Robert Caro’s ample biography of the man, The Power Broker, which has sold about 319,000 copies, its publisher told The Observer for an article earlier this year.

The urban planning prophet might think Astoria and Bay Ridge turned out O.K., according to a new exhibit—but her old West Village? Um …  read more »

MAS President Kent Barwick couldn't say whether it would be as large as the Moses ones now under way in three separate venues (Jacobs would be the first to say that size doesn't matter), but he will certainly feel the pressure to make it as good.

Asked for his own opinion of Moses, Mr. Barwick said, "That's like saying, 'How do you like the Himalayan Mountains?' It is a very big subject."

6:30 p.m. JANE JACOBS VS. ROBERT MOSES: How Stands the Debate Today? Another reminder about Jane Jacobs, this one featuring all the top names in urban planning, starting with Amanda Burden, Michael Sorkin, Nicolai Ouroussoff, Brad Lander and others . This one though it fully subscribed, so you can show up and wait in line or just wait until next week, when the Wagner School will do its own tribute. CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street.

A public celebration for Jane Jacobs will be held at 5pm in front of the Washington Square Arch, site of her first victory over Robert Moses.

Steven Van Zandt will host a fundraiser with special guest Bonnie Raitt in support of John Hall, at a private home following Bonnie Raitt's Summerstage Concert in Central Park.

• Nicolai Ouroussoff on the death of Jane Jacobs: "[Her] death may also give us permission to move on, to let go of the obsessive belief that Ms. Jacobs held the answer to every evil that faces the contemporary city." (The New York Times)
• Afraid of color? Sick of beige? Introducing: The Huetrals! In other design news: furniture makers believe in the bubble. They fear the bubble. (Real Estate Journal)
• Herman Badillo wants to build "four towers of 38, 36, 20 and 12 stories" on Bedford in the Northside of Williamsburg. (The New York Post)