Alternative Futures for New Rochelle: The Next Generation Live/Work City

This report projects future development scenarios for New Rochelle, New York, within the context of the New York City and Long Island Sound regions. Exploring a diversity of possibilities, the report’s overriding concern engages ecological considerations related to New Rochelle’s unique position as a transportation hub on the edge of the most urbanized estuary in North America.

Alternative Futures for New Rochelle: The Next Generation Live/Work City is the culmination of two interdisciplinary design studios at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) and Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), representing the collective work of 73 graduate students and 16 faculty members and the input of numerous professionals from New Rochelle and the region. The Urban Design Lab at Columbia’s Earth Institute has played an important role in defining the studios’ emphases and in synthesizing their work into the format of this publication.

This report was made possible by the generous support of the City of New Rochelle.

Editors and Designers: Richard Plunz, Priscila Coli, Vanessa Espaillat, Kirk Finkel, Olivia Gibbeson, Martin Hojny, Keonwoo Kim, Robert McCormick Elliot, Sunjana Thirumala Sridhar, Maria Paola Sutto

Managing Editors: Vanessa Espaillat, Richard Plunz, Maria Paola Sutto