Immediately following the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, twenty design and planning organizations formed a coalition, called New York New Visions (NYNV), to develop design and planning recommendations for Lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center site and to inform public deliberation and the decisions that needed to be made to set in motion Lower Manhattan’s rebirth.

Since the event, NYNV has pursued an agenda of action, reaction, and outreach-- to put forward proactive initiatives (such as design of the viewing wall and assistance with the site design competition), to respond to public and private activities on the site (both positive support and constructive criticism), and to provide forums, workshops and public statements (educating both its members and the public at large about activities normally hidden from view).

Recently NYNV has expanded its purview, in addition to its continued focus on the Trade Center site, to examine city-wide planning and design issues brought to the fore by Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030, a vision for a greener and greater New York-- sustainability, growth and infrastructure problems and opportunities that must be creatively resolved as the city moves into the 21st Century.

And it is sponsoring, with the AIA, a disaster preparedness task force which follows in the wake of recent man-made and natural catastrophes with a positive plan for engaging the energy of its planning and design community in preventative and remedial actions to mitigate the impact of unexpected but all too likely crises.

Immediately following 9/11, New York New Visions produced an award-winning report, Principles for the Rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, which was presented to Governor Pataki, outgoing Mayor Guiliani, incoming Mayor Bloomberg, President Bush and the US Congress, the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, City and State agencies, and a wide array of civic and business groups. NYNV has followed this effort with a still-continuing series of other reports, activities, and public events dedicated to achieving the best possible resolution to rebuilding the site in the face of myriad obstacles and roadblocks. Over the last year NYNV has also sponsored a parallel series of forums and task force meetings examining the future of the larger city as a whole over the next twenty-five years.

As the unprecedented consensus voice of New York's planning, design and civic community, New York New Visions includes an impressive mix of talent and expertise. Over 350 architects, planners, engineers, and artists represent the much larger membership of the following twenty organizations: