Along with pumpkin-laced food and drink, October in NYC brings Archtober, the city’s Architecture and Design Month. In keeping with the theme, Searching for Superpublics, an exhibition at the Center for Architecture, explores how architects and designers can transform the public arena, with an emphasis on “public.” Curators Ivi Diamantopoulou and Jaffer Kolb have gathered documentation of projects that bring in residents and create more quality-of-life-enhancing public spaces. As described in the opening statement, the show centers on “a search for additions to city life that overcome the boundaries of neighborhoods, communities, boroughs, and typical public spaces.”
Public art has often brought out heated controversy, particularly when locals feel unseen about how they actually use public spaces in their daily lives. But in Jackson Heights, residents embraced a project commissioned by the Alliance for Paseo Park that brought together 26 Queens-based artists, professionals and students, to paint granite blocks on 26 blocks of 34th Avenue, part of the “Open Streets” initiative that stretches across a diverse variety of Queens neighborhoods, where traffic is limited to set hours and community programs flourish. Jean Foos, an artist living in the neighborhood, sums up how it felt to be part of the project: “The best Superpublic art is SuperLOCALpublic art. It was a pleasure to meet my neighbors of all ages and backgrounds, as I painted my block on the street.”
Other documentation describes shoreline restoration, with the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance; a plan for transforming three and a half miles of vacant LIRR tracks into a pedestrian park called the Queensway; and the Staten Island Bluebelts program, which doubles as flood management while creating such public amenities as nature trails.
The concluding line of the exhibition statement feels particularly meaningful in these days of chaotic division: “Together, these projects illustrate an optimistic portrait of a city constantly striving to be more livable, more collective, more accessible, and more just.” ❖
Searching for Superpublics
Center for Architecture
536 LaGuardia Place
October 3, 2025 – March 28, 2026
