MEGAPROJECTS

PROGRAM Megaprojects: An International Urban Planning and Development Conference Friday, May 11th: 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM
8:00-8:30 AM	OPEN BREAKFAST FOR SPEAKERS & ATTENDEES
8:30-8:35 AM	WELCOME Vishaan Chakrabarti, AIA, Holliday Professor of Real Estate Development and Director, CURE. The Center for Urban Real Estate, Columbia University GSAPP
8:35-8:45 AM	CONFERENCE GOALS Kate Ascher, Milstein Professor of Urban Development, Columbia University GSAPP; Principal, Happold Consulting
8:45 – 9:15 AM	Keynote Address GLOBAL CITIES AND MEGAPROJECTS: THE NEXT GENERATION OF URBAN PLANNING Saskia Sassen, Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University
9:15-10:15 AM	NEW YORK AND ITS GRID-BREAKING MEGAPROJECTS: THEMES AND ISSUES This panel will introduce the themes of the day, including the major opportunities and obstacles associated with megaprojects, the nature of public-private partnerships supporting these undertakings, and the lessons learned in realizing these projects in global centers like New York and London over the past several decades. It will outline and reflect upon some of the major New York megaprojects of the last 50 years, and comment upon the nature and challenges of megaprojects underway today in New York City and beyond.. Introduction Steven Spinola, President, The Real Estate Board of New York Moderator Michael S. Zetlin, Esq., Founding Partner, Zetlin & De Chiara LLP Panelists Seth Pinsky, President, New York City Economic Development Corporation Stephen M. Ross, Chairman, CEO, Founder, Related Companies Robert Yaro, President, The Regional Plan Association
10:15-10:30 AM	COFFEE BREAK
10:30-11:45 PM	TIMES SQUARE: RECTILINEAR REDEVELOPMENT IN THE HEART OF THE CITY This panel will examine one of the most important urban redevelopment projects to occur in the last 50 years – the resurgence of 42nd Street and Times Square. It will explore the roles of both private developers and a public development corporation in facilitating the transformation of a once-seedy area to one of Manhattan’s premier office destinations. It will touch on some of the financial and legal strategies used at various points to both obstruct and to facilitate the transformation, and reflect on the lessons learned in working within the street grid to accomplish neighborhood regeneration. Moderator Richard T. Anderson, President, New York Building Congress Panelists Gary Rosenberg, Chairman, Founding Partner, Rosenberg & Estis, PC. Lynne Sagalyn, Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Professor of Real Estate; Director, MBA Real Estate Program and Director, Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate, Columbia Business School Carl Weisbrod, Clinical Professor and Academic Chair, Global Development, New York University
11:45-12:30 PM	NETWORKING LUNCH
12:30-1:00 PM	Keynote Address Patrick Foye, Executive Director, Port Authority of New York & New Jersey
1:00-2:00 PM	THE WORLD TRADE CENTER AND BATTERY PARK CITY: LESSONS LEARNED This panel will examine the initial World Trade Center development, a superbloc development constructed by the Port Authority and opened in the early 1970’s, in terms of both its limitations and successes as an office and retail destination prior to 9/11. It will also consider the alternative paradigm of Battery Park City - a mixed-use grid-based development overseen by a public development corporation. The evolution and subsequent history of each of these projects provides fascinating case study material with respect to the role of public agencies, the phasing of megaprojects, and the shift in design paradigms that typically occur over the early life of a megaproject. Moderator Vin Cipolla, President, The Municipal Art Society of New York Panelists Charles J. Maikish, Managing Director, Chief Operating Officer, Citi Realty Services Rafael Pelli, Senior Partner, Pelli Clarke Pelli Carol Willis, Director, The Skyscraper Museum
2:00-3:00 PM	LONDON'S MEGAPROJECTS: WHAT CAN WE LEARN? Like New York, London is a city that has witnessed the transformation of large swaths of land within its boundaries – sometimes via a special development corporation and sometimes more organically. This panel will take a look at some of the more prominent megaproject developments in London today, including those a major new residential development in the Earls Court area in the southwest of London, from both a design and a development perspective. It will also touch on the lessons learned in developing the Canary Wharf project in London’s Docklands, and the role of public agencies in facilitating that transformation. Moderator Paul Katz, President, KPF Panelists Richard Powell, Director of Planning and Development, Capital & Counties Properties PLC (Capco) Eric Sorensen, Director, Central London Forward Mike Stowell, Managing Partner, Terry Farrell and Partners
3:00–3:15 PM	NETWORKING BREAK
3:15-4:15 PM	HUDSON YARDS: A MEGAPROJECT FOR THE 21ST CENTURY The redevelopment and transformation of the Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s west side is among the most significant megaprojects underway in this country today. It has involved significant community input into a major area-wide rezoning, the formation of a development corporation, the creation of unusual financing mechanisms with respect to both infrastructure and real estate development, and an unprecedented partnership between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and a private developer. The scope and nature of this development, including how far it has come and the challenges that remain, will serve as the focus of the day’s final panel. Moderator A. Eugene Kohn, Chairman, KPF Panelists Anna Hayes Levin, Commissioner, NYC Department of Planning Jeffrey B. Rosen, Director of Real Estate, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Dean Shapiro, Senior Vice President, Oxford Properties Group
4:15-4:30 PM	LESSONS LEARNED: WITHER THE GRID? CLOSING REMARKS Vishaan Chakrabarti, AIA, Holliday Professor of Real Estate Development and Director, CURE. The Center for Urban Real Estate, Columbia University GSAPP

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