Future

VISIONS OF THE FUTURE FR

The mayor may have his vision for the New York
of the future, but it’s the arts, not infrastructure,
that keep innovators coming to the city. The
Resident talked to the people behind it all about
their predictions for the state of the arts in 2030.
—By Heather Corcoran

THE ARCHITECT THE FASHIONISTA

Jeremy Medoff
THE WRITER
As a journalist, Rich Cohen
sticks to the facts, but his predic-
tions for the future sound like sci-
ence fiction. “I imagine the robots
will be in charge and we will be
happy if they let us watch an hour
of TV a day,” he said. “Most of it
reality shows about robots who live
together, and fight and make up, but
still can’t love, because robots can’t
love. In fact, they experience no
emotion whatsoever. It’s how they
were programmed. Also, the robots
will be totally into splatter art and
video games in which the computer
always wins. As for books, well, ro-
bots don’t like books, because when
people start reading books, they start
getting ideas – some of them about
robots.”
His new memoir, “Sweet and
Low” (Picador), tells one version of
the American dream through the
true story of Ben Eisenstadt, the
Brooklyn-based inventor of the sug-
As the city changes over the next
25 years, architect Daniel Libes-
kind will play a major role in the
way it develops – he’s the master
planner of the Memory Founda-
tions project at the World Trade
Center and one of the most influ-
ential working architects. Today, he
said, architects and developers are
finding ways to create buildings that
are contextual and positive, inspir-
ing and economical.
“It’s the first time in a long time
that people are really thinking about
architecture now,” he said. “They’re
not just thinking of more density,
but quality of urban space, quality
of parks, quality of the waterfront,
and architecture’s beginning to no
longer just tag along, but people say,
‘Build us great buildings. Build us
interesting places.’ Because that’s
the way we can develop the city
and that’s the way we can also make
money.”
AP Photo/Gurinder Osan
Photographer and native New Yorker Patrick
McMullan has been a part of the city’s fashion and
nightlife scenes since his days at Studio 54. By 2030, he
predicts, art shows will be available in our homes like
podcasts, and more people will be turning to experts
for advice. “The idea of stylists – there will be stylists
for everything,” he said. “They will be people you go to
to tell you what to wear; they’ll tell you what you want
to watch. We’ll all be busy. All busy, busy, busy.”
McMullan also predicts that new advances in tech-
nology will have us feeling – and looking – better than
ever. But don’t expect New York to change its charac-
ter. “There’ll be more towers and more up-there stuff
going on, but I still think it’s going to be the same, more
modern, clearer,” he said. “New York is just going to
become more New York. Every neighborhood will be-
come more itself, in the best way.”
THE NOVELIST
Emily Barton’s novel “Brookland” (Picador)
is the story of Prudence Winship, an 18th-century
Brooklynite who longs to cross the river that sepa-
rates her from Manhattan. In the future, worries Bar-
ton, even the boroughs may
be too pricey. “Will there still
be literature in New York
City in 2030? Of course,
of course; but I also suspect
the vast majority of writers
will be unable to afford to
continue to live here if rents
even in the outer boroughs
remain so high.”
Greg Martin

28 • Resident The Week Of March 12, 2007

OM NEW YORK VISIONARIES
THE CHEF
When Masayoshi Takayama opened his restaurant, Masa, in 2004, his dedication to high-quality
ingredients made a seat at his sushi bar one of most sought-after reservations in the city. Since then, guests
at the Time Warner Center restaurant have paid a hefty $400 price tag to eat whatever the chef decides to
feed them in his menu-free restaurant.
“I think people will be eating in a more natural way. They will want to know their food is clean, where it
comes from, which sea, which land, and that it’s not polluted,” said Takayama. And just as his restaurant chal-
lenged French cuisine’s stronghold on fine dining, as customers “become more sophisticated in their tastes,”
AP Photo/Richard Drew

Takayama predicts a growing interest in lean, seafood-rich cuisine. “Japanese cuisine will become ever more
popular and French cuisine will die. There is just too much butter, cream and animal products in it. People
will also eat Greek or Mediterranean cuisine, meaning a simple way to prepare food. I don’t think the mega-
restaurants will continue, because it’s impossible to prepare great food for 200 or 300 customers.”

THE PUBLIC ARTS THE EDUCATOR

PRODUCER
Since 1974, Creative Time has cu-
rated some of the most exciting and
innovative public arts projects in the
city, like Doug Aitken’s “Sleepwalk-
ers” at the Museum of Modern Art.
Anne Pasternak, the organization’s
president and artistic director, wor-
ries that the city is “on the verge of
losing its creative, and therefore mar-
ketable, edge,” because of rising costs
of living.
By 2030, there will have to be
some major shifts in policy and ways
of thinking to keep the arts alive, she
predicts. “Subsidized housing, for
artists of all disciplines, designed by
like-minded architects, will be spon-
sored by the city and developers.
At the same time, art will be valued
and integrated into schools and busi-
nesses for expansive thinking and
creative problem solving,” she said.
“It will seem unfathomable that a
group called the Guerilla Girls need-
ed to exist to expose discrepancies
in representation or pay for women.
Everyday experiences will be further
enriched by artistic content, and dy-
namic conversations among artists,
sites and audiences will enliven ev-
Photo courtesy Fred Siegel
THE HISTORIAN
Fred Siegel says the future of the
city as a vibrant center for the arts de-
pends on three major factors: security,
economics and originality. But even if
cities like Hong Kong, Chicago and
London begin to dominate the finan-
cial market, or terrorism isn’t contained,
the arts may thrive, he said.
“The key thing is the ironic connec-
tion: Sometimes young artists survive
when the city is struggling. The prime
example is the 1970s,” said Siegel. And
as a professor of history at the Cooper
Union for the Advancement of Science
and Art, he’s seen promising young stu-
dents pack their bags for Baltimore or
Philadelphia after being priced out of
the city. In the future, Siegel said, expect
it will be harder for people to start out
A successful theater industry means a successful economy for the
city, said Michael Presser, director of Inside Broadway, an organi-
zation that has brought live theater to schools for the past 25 years.
“Obviously, for the theater to be vibrant artistically, we need to be
bringing in a new crop – just like the sports world – a new crop of
performers and artists,” he said. And to keep them coming, the city
has to keep Times Square a safe destination. But what will new audi-
ences want to hear?
“There will always be an audience for the classic musicals, such as
[the works of] Rodgers and Hammerstein. That is part of our Ameri-
can heritage. Broadway has always been a reflector of the mass-mar-
ket tastes of the American public, and so as the new audience devel-
ops there will be shows that will begin to integrate rock music more
into musical theater. We will also begin to see shows that begin to
reflect the interests in ethnic audiences.”
THE DANCE DIRECTOR
Sharon Gersten Luckman, executive director of the Alvin Ailey
Dance Foundation, hopes that “New York will always be known as the
dance capital of the world.” Since Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s
first performance at the 92nd Street Y in 1958, the organization has worked
toward keeping it that way. In 2005 they
opened the largest dance center in the
country, which Luckman predicts will keep
dancers drawn to the city, “just like Alvin
Ailey was five decades ago.” “However,”
she said, “the shortage of affordable hous-
ing is a problem for young students – and
is a challenge for professional dancers and
choreographers as well. There is a great
need of affordable housing for the artists
Andrew Eccles

eryday experiences, causing people, here. Siegel’s latest book is “The Prince who nourish the spirit and diversity of this
in Jenny Holzer’s words, ‘to practice of the City: Giuliani, New York, and culturally vibrant city.”
random acts of kindness.’” the Genius of American Life.”
Resident The Week Of March 12, 2007 • 29