The Flatiron plazas where people take lunch, cut across Broadway and stop to look up at the Flatiron Building are still an interim installation. NYC DOT put them in with interim materials in 2008. The agency's own workshop flyer still calls them "painted pedestrian spaces." In October, DOT's workshop boards marked the Flatiron plazas "fully funded" for permanent reconstruction. The agency's September presentation to Manhattan Community Board 5 puts the start of construction in fiscal year 2028.
So for at least another year, and probably longer, the plazas stay in their temporary form. This fall's programming, and the businesses opening along the plaza edges, are using a space whose permanent design is now on paper.
Eighteen Years of Interim Upgrades
The plazas have never been static. DOT and the Flatiron NoMad Partnership have reworked them in stages, each still treated as interim:
- 2008. DOT installs the Flatiron Plazas with interim materials.
- 2017. A refresh adds a protected bike lane and turns Broadway between 24th and 25th Streets into a shared street that still allows vehicles.
- 2021. Shared streets arrive between 21st and 23rd Streets.
- June 23, 2023. The Broadway Vision buildout delivers pedestrian plazas between 25th and 27th Streets.
- 2021 to 2025. DOT's timeline also lists an interim reconfiguration that added two-way north and south bike lanes.
- 2025. As part of the Midtown South Mixed Use Plan rezoning, DOT commits with elected officials to study full pedestrianization of more Broadway blocks. Preliminary and final design of the permanent project begins.
Each step changed the layout without changing what the plazas are made of. The project now in design covers more ground than the original triangles: the Flatiron Public Plazas, NoMad Piazza, Worth Square, Broadway from 21st to 27th Street and Fifth Avenue from 22nd to 26th Street.
What the Permanent Version Replaces
DOT scheduled public workshops on the draft designs for October 14 and 15 at the Flatiron South Plaza, on Broadway between 22nd and 23rd Streets. The workshop materials and the September CB5 presentation remain the clearest public record of the plan. The changes are mostly in materials:
| Element | Today | Draft permanent design |
|---|---|---|
| Ground surface | Painted pedestrian spaces | Tinted, scored concrete plaza paving with granite inlays marking historic lots; scored concrete sidewalks |
| Greenery | Planters on the roadbed | In-ground planting and more permanent tree canopy |
| Seating | Movable furniture | Wood-slat seatwalls and benches, CityBench and stone seating, movable tables and chairs, lounge chairs |
| Lighting | Existing street lighting | New pedestrian lights and street-light poles |
| Bikes | Interim two-way lanes | Asphalt bike path for two-way social cycling, sized for future bike-network expansion |
| Security | Bollards | Security measures designed to reduce the visual impact of bollards |
According to DOT, the preliminary design was coordinated with the Madison Square Park Conservancy and the Flatiron NoMad Partnership. It adds more space for sitting and lingering while keeping the plazas open enough for events. Worth Square has its own movable-seating option. The boards also show an alternative called "Flatiron Plaza North & South Shared Street," so the exact edge between plaza and roadway is still open to change.
DOT has not published a project budget or a completion date. The $375 million figure linked to the project in Partnership materials is the citywide public-space and Open Streets capital program announced in 2023. It covers many projects across the five boroughs, so it is not the cost of Flatiron's plazas.
The October Calendar Uses the Plazas as They Are Now
Most of this fall's programming on the plazas depends on their current, flexible setup, starting with the setup in place before the reconstruction.
On the South Plaza, the same block where DOT showed its draft designs, papel picado by Tanya Aguiñiga Studio hangs through November 3. On the North Plaza, the Partnership's community altar, Twenty Petal Flower, will be on view from October 26 to November 3. Mestiz Studio and Powerhouse Arts designed it.
The 5th annual Día de Muertos celebration takes place on the North Plaza on Wednesday, October 28, from 3 to 7 p.m. The program includes:
- Mexican folklore performances by Calpulli Mexican Dance Company
- A flower-making workshop with Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders
- A Día de Muertos-inspired booklet-making activity with the Center for Book Arts
- DIY printmaking and marigold paper-flower making with Poster House
- La Catrina face painting and skull decorating
An altar on the plaza, booths for an afternoon and decorations strung overhead all need open, adaptable space. DOT's stated goal of balancing green space with plaza flexibility is a commitment to keep room for events like this.
New Openings Along the Edges
The plazas are funded but still years from construction. Meanwhile, the blocks around them have filled with new tenants over the past three months:
- Bun Mee opened at 115 E. 23rd St. on October 8. It is the chain's first location outside California.
- Tatte Bakery & Café held its grand-opening weekend at 315 Park Ave. South on September 19 and 20.
- Amphora opened at 43 E. 20th St. on September 9, according to Eater NY. It took over the space Saint Urban left this summer, as Eater's August closings roundup reported.
- El Califa de León at 20 W. 23rd St. and TAP Brazilian Café at 261 Fifth Ave. are both in the Partnership's September new-neighbor roundup.
- Matchaful opened at 337 Park Ave. South, according to the Partnership's August roundup.
Below the plazas on Fifth Avenue, Canadian furniture brand Cozey has announced plans for its first permanent U.S. store at 160 Fifth Ave., between 20th and 21st Streets. CoStar reported the plan in May with no opening date.
The Halloween weekend stays close to the plazas too. Eataly at 200 Fifth Ave. hosts its Pizza Disco class on Friday, October 30 at 7 p.m. Barlume Downstairs at 900 Broadway holds a Halloween event on Saturday, October 31 at 9 p.m. Atoboy at 43 E. 28th St. is serving a Levain-cookie milk bingsu, made with Levain Bakery, through October.
The Granite Inlays and the Park's Gilded Age
One detail in the draft design points back in time. DOT's material palette includes granite inlays marking historic lots in the new paving. These would set lines from the area's earlier street pattern into the ground of a plaza that did not exist until 2008.
For the history behind those lines, the Madison Square Park Conservancy runs a free MSP History Tour: The Gilded Age, Before, & Beyond on November 17 at noon. It meets at the park's northwest entrance at 26th Street and Fifth Avenue, about a block from the north end of the reconstruction area. The next day, November 18, the Conservancy holds Bench Hours with MSPC senior staff in the park from noon to 1:30 p.m. Inside the park, Roberto Lugo's Alfarero del Barrio (Village Potter), with its 20-foot urn and working domino tables, stays on view through December 6.
The full set of draft boards is posted in DOT's October workshop materials and its September presentation to Community Board 5. Construction of the permanent plazas is scheduled to begin in fiscal year 2028.
For hospitality and entertainment operators, a permanently rebuilt plaza changes the frontage, foot traffic and event potential of the blocks around it. Those factors are best judged before a lease is signed, not after construction begins. Turnstone Advisory assesses venue sites and operational readiness for operators considering ground-floor space along the Broadway and Fifth Avenue plazas. Request a confidential consultation.
