Bringing NYC Streets Back to the People

As New Yorkers continue to emerge from Covid-19, their gathering patterns have transformed. Public spaces and street culture are regaining prominence, similar to the cityscapes of Europe. Sreoshy Banerjea SM ’13 is a force behind the resurgence. As executive director of the New York City Public Design Commission, she advocates for the innovative, sustainable, and equitable design of public spaces and civic structures.
 
Her office recently released Designing New York: Streetscapes for Wellness, a comprehensive strategy to democratize dozens of city spaces for better public health.
 
“I’m able to see about 80 to 100 projects every month that are physically going to change New York City. Being able to push the design further is really exciting,” she says. “We’re bringing our streets back to the people. I’m excited about physically seeing New York City get more vibrant as a mark of recovery. A favorite project is the reconstruction of the pool and rink at the Harlem Meer Central Park, a project of the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Central Park Conservancy.”

After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Banerjea was drawn to MIT’s strength in urban design due to her strong interest in city growth. Her grandfather was a town planner in India, and she recalled a childhood struck by the juxtaposition of squatter communities and sleek towers. It inspired her to create equity through urban design and planning.  
 
“At MIT, thinking big is encouraged. It wasn’t in the weeds of the technicalities of architecture and design. It was more about the big picture, and that shaped my career,” she says. While in Cambridge, she received a MISTI grant to study in India, where her master’s thesis examined equitable waterfront development. (She dedicated the work to her grandfather.)
 
Fittingly, Banerjea later joined the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC) as their only urban designer at the time. There, she helped to create The Financial District and Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan, recalling her master’s thesis on sustainable waterfronts. In Queens, she helped to reimagine Willets Point, a long-forgotten industrial neighborhood in the floodplain. It will become home to a soccer stadium slated to open in 2027, plus affordable housing and retail.
 
“A theme that runs across all of the NYC EDC projects is to build better neighborhoods, and to build more economic opportunities to have programming that leads to jobs,” she says. She hopes the initiative will employ neighborhood workers and drive foot traffic to businesses nearby.
 
“We’re creating an ecosystem,” she says. 
 
This sense of equity pervades all corners of her work. During Covid, she founded Design Corps to help struggling New York City restaurants implement pandemic-safe design. It was a family affair. Banerjea’s husband, Indian restaurateur Roni Mazumdar, is known for Michelin-rated restaurant Semma, with a menu hailed for boundary-transcending dishes. The couple is often praised for their aesthetic and culinary trailblazing. (She doesn’t usually advise him on design decisions: Most collaboration happens when parenting their sons, ages 2 and 4, she says.)
 
As restaurants scrambled to create outdoor dining options, Banerjea assembled a network of volunteer architects to support the efforts. Ultimately, over 100 restaurants and 70 firms galvanized to comply with city and state guidelines. Largely thanks to this work, she received the American Institute of Architects New York (AIANY) Service to the City award for her contributions toward making “NYC a better place to live.” She was also a Fast Company Innovation by Design Honorary Award recipient for the work.
 
“I was just piloting something that was a seed of an idea―but it taught me that you have to run with it,” she says.
 
When not working, Banerjea likes to give back: She runs a course to help minority- and women-led architecture firms craft proposals to bid on projects. She’s also working on a class to help architecture graduates devise a career road map.
 
Now, Banerjea calls her newest role in the NYC Public Design Commission “the opportunity of a lifetime.” She helps review capital projects built on city-owned property, from buildings to art to landscapes, reshaping the blueprint of a city she loves alongside 11 pro-bono commissioners, who meet monthly to vote on projects submitted by city agencies. 
 
“I have a bird’s eye view of all the projects that are going to make New York City even more vibrant, more inclusive, and equitable,” she says.

Are you celebrating a milestone reunion like Sreoshy Banerjea SM ’13 is? Learn more about MIT Tech Reunions taking place June 1-4 on MIT's campus.