Join us in a field game developed with architectural historian Elihu Rubin to explore the historical footprint of escape in Van Alen’s Flatiron District neighborhood, followed by a discussion of the past, present, and future of escape in the city. Brent D. Ryan, Associate Professor of Urban Design and Public Policy at MIT; Jeffrey Shumaker, Deputy Chief Urban Designer for the City of New York; and others will examine the fluctuating perceptions of the city’s relationship to escape—tracking its evolution from 19th-century land of opportunity, to 20th-century land of urban flight, and on to today’s megalopolis as a place that people escape to, from, and within. This is the first in an ongoing series investigating the past, present, and future impacts of escape on the urban environment.

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