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DEAR MAYOR MAMDANI
In a new series of bite-sized interviews by The World Around and PIN–UP Magazine, New York-based architects share their thoughts on how new Mayor Zohran Mamdani can improve their city—and how they can help, too.
By Sunena Maju
New York has a new mayor and for the first time in a long time, architects believe he might actually be listening.
When PIN–UP magazine gathered New York City's architectural community to celebrate its 40th anniversary this summer, The World Around seized the moment to ask a simple question: what do you want Mayor Mamdani to know? The responses came fast, and they came from everywhere — from founders of celebrated firms and emerging practices, from born-and-raised New Yorkers and architects who chose this city and never left. What they said covered housing, public space, climate, infrastructure, politics, and the next generation of designers being locked out of the city they live in.
Five themes emerged from those conversations. Together they form an argument, not just about New York, but about what cities owe the people who build and inhabit them.
Pernilla Ohrstedt, Amina Blacksher, Susan Wines and Mimi Hoang
DEAR MAYOR MAMDANI: “THE CITY IS OUR LIVING ROOM”
The first is about public space. New York's apartments are too small and too expensive, which means the city itself is where people actually live — the parks, the libraries, the streets, the corners that belong to everyone. Architects are watching that space shrink and asking the Mayor to treat it as infrastructure, not decoration.
Jaffer Kolb, Nahyun Hwang, Michael Abel, Andrea Chiney and Nile Greenberg
DEAR MAYOR MAMDANI: “NEW YORK IS A LABORATORY FOR ARCHITECTURE”
The second is about who gets to build. New York has always been a laboratory for architectural experimentation, but the RFP process has locked a generation of talented designers out of their own city. A public bathroom becomes one of the most-read articles in an architecture magazine because architects are that keen to work here.
Ada Tolla, Adam Rolston, Amale Andraos and Florian Idenburg
DEAR MAYOR MAMDANI: “DO NOT LEAVE HOUSING IN THE HANDS OF DEVELOPERS”
The third is about housing. Across the five boroughs, the city owns four square miles of vacant land, roughly the size of a fifth of Manhattan. Almost 300,000 units could be built on it, tax-free. Then, the barriers don’t seem financial, but they are regulatory and political. Adding to it, the Commission for Housing does not have a single architect on it.
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Andrés Jaque, Andrew Heid, Tei Carpenter and Bjarke Ingels
DEAR MAYOR MAMDANI: “TURN NEW YORK INTO AN OCEANIC CITY”
The fourth is about nature and the physical environment. The water levels are rising. The heat is climbing. Increasing New York's tree canopy coverage by 10% could save billions in energy costs and save lives. The city has been turning its back on its waters for a century. It is time to face them.
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Mariam Issoufou, Mabel Wilson, V. Mitch McEwen, Ivi Diamantopoulou, Noam Dvir, and James Wines
DEAR MAYOR MAMDANI: “ARCHITECTURE IS ONE OF THE MOST POLITICAL FIELDS”
The fifth is about power. Architecture is a political act. Every building, every bench, every public space makes a statement about who belongs and who does not. These spaces were designed and so are their politics. Mayor Mamdani, more than most mayors, understands what it means to move through a city as an ordinary person. That understanding is an asset.