Past Event: Our Fair City Virtual Conversation: Work

The video above was recorded on Wednesday, December 9. In this virtual conversation, critic and editor Justin Davidson speaks with architect David Ehrenberg, Esmeralda Herrera, and Claire Weisz about workspaces, commuting, and business districts in a post-COVID NYC. See the full event description below.

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Shipping, manufacturing, finance, ­tourism—each has buoyed the city, then left a wake of wreckage. New York will have to continue to find new ways to spread the risk, helping industries to expand beyond their niches. Even after the pandemic has passed, workspace and commuting patterns may shift, and a lot of the city will adapt. How can a new generation of offices, factories, and hybrid work/retail/community spaces transform the concept of a business district? Curbed's Justin Davidson invites David Ehrenberg (Brooklyn Navy Yard), Esmeralda Herrera (Communitas America), and Claire Weisz (WXY) to discuss. 

This program will take place via Zoom Webinar. Registrants will receive a link to watch the morning of the event. 

About the Speakers:
David Ehrenberg is President and CEO of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC), overseeing its diverse tenant base and ongoing expansion efforts. The Navy Yard is a 300-acre industrial campus on the Brooklyn waterfront that is now home to over 500 companies and nearly 12,000 jobs. Previously, Ehrenberg was Executive Vice President of Real Estate Transaction Services at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), where he managed many of the city’s priority economic development projects, including initiatives resulting in Cornell’s Roosevelt Island campus, Essex Crossing on the lower East Side; the Atlantic Yards project; and hundreds of millions of dollars of programs supporting small businesses after Hurricane Sandy. 

Born and raised in the Bronx, Esmeralda Herrera is an ecosystem builder who works at the intersection of business and social impact to support local entrepreneurs. As Director of Programs and Community Relations at Communitas America, Herrera manages an accelerator in the Bronx that works directly with founders – primarily women and entrepreneurs of color – to help build, launch, and expand social ventures that reach vulnerable communities. Coming soon to the South Bronx, the Communitas America will be located at Heyground, an innovation hub for the BIPOC entrepreneurial community, which will offer much needed affordable space and critical startup resources to help changemakers flourish together.

Claire Weisz FAIA is a founding partner of WXY, known for their innovative approach to community, public space, structures, and cities. Weisz was awarded the Medal of Honor from AIANY in 2018 and was honored with the Women in Architecture Award by Architectural Record in 2019. WXY is globally recognized for its place-based approach to architecture, urban design, and planning, and has played a vital role in design thinking around resiliency. In 2019 Fast Company named WXY one of the World’s Most Innovative Architecture Firms.

Justin Davidson (moderator) has been the classical music and architecture critic at New York magazine since 2007. He is now the editor of Cityscape as a part of Curbed/New York magazine.  He won a Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2002 and an American Society of Newspaper Editors criticism (ASNE) award. He has contributed to The New Yorker, W., Travel and Leisure, The Los Angeles Times, Slate, and Salon, and has appeared on WNYC and NPR. He is the author of Magnetic City: A Walking Companion to New York (Penguin Random House, 2017). Read his recent article about the future of New York City here.  

This is the second event in our series Our Fair City: Building a More Equitable New York. For more information, click here.