The COZY City

Creative ideas for the winter months...

The other day I went to Interlude Coffee & Tea, a laid-back neighborhood favorite of mine. On their tiny library shelf nestled into the wooden side booth, I came across this book: The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes.

It got me thinking. We put a lot of energy into making our homes cozy for the winter.

But what about our cities?

Yes, there are the usual holiday decorations. We put up Christmas trees in plazas, and stage Santa’s workshops in busy shopping malls, only for it all to come down in January. But that’s not what I’m getting at here. I’m interested in how our cities - the public realm, plazas, parks, streetscapes, sidewalks - make us feel in January, February and March when the holidays are long gone and we finally bundle up and brace for the cold of winter if only just to walk to a cafe and order an iced latte. I think there are still opportunities in this season to spark joy and evoke a sense of comfort outdoors.

We should use placemaking principles of urban design to plan cozier cities, not just for the holidays, but to carry us through the long winter months.

I believe a good way to do this is to use small design solutions or programming that really engages with the senses.

Let’s walk through some examples I’ve observed lately.

SEE: warm lights outside.

When we curate cozy indoor spaces we want things dimly lit, using candles, low lighting, etc. Outside in the winter, it's the opposite. We instinctively feel safer on a well-lit street but it also adds an element of warmth and coziness to an otherwise overcast gray day or cold, dark night. It draws us closer and captures our attention. In the best cases, lighting installations evoke a sense of wonder and awe. Just a certain slant of light cast from a building onto a sidewalk can create a starry constellation, like Roman and Williams Guild’s recent installation at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Imagine something like this installed over a micro-park or plaza or lighting up a dark alley outside an art gallery.

Some more examples…on Stone Street last week.

In the Seaport last month

Zuccotti Park looking warm!

HEAR: something jazzy.

In the winter, I love the warm tone of brass instruments. A few months ago at the Jacquemus grand opening in Soho, they had a jazz band playing soft instrumentals on the sidewalk. It had a really charming and calming effect, I thought. Whether you are a tenant looking to boost foot traffic, a ‘friends of a park’ org programming a space, or a city planner reviewing street performance permits, tune in to the opportunities to support musicians during chilly days. It will make things cozier in our city, okay.

SMELL: something good.

If we’re being honest, we all know our cities could smell better. I’m not sure there is any hope of making it smell better in the summer heat. But did you know that one of the most effective times to wear perfume is on the coldest of winter days because it slows down the evaporation of fragrance molecules, causing the scent to linger longer? So it makes sense to try this out now. For the last two Decembers, Fifth Avenue has smelled good thanks to the use of Nest fragrance diffusers added to their Christmas decorations. We can take this a step further and find ways to incorporate cozy scents subtly into planter boxes, sans holiday decor, for the rest of winter.

FEEL: something soft or shiny or both.

I LOVED these shiny flags at Rockefeller Center in December. I don’t know if they are still there this month but I remember the moment I saw them a few weeks ago. I felt a spark of joy. It quite literally brightened up my winter day. We should do more of that. I’ve also been (somewhat creatively, part naively) wondering: what if we covered gross grey metal bollards with something fluffy? Am I crazy for even typing that? Or what if we covered the Brooklyn Bridge with this type of light blue fluffy material from this Tibi sandal as a temporary art installation? It would certainly give the congestion pricing debaters something else to talk about and could serve as an artful transition from winter to spring.

Now, below…you can notice an immediate difference between these two portions of the same street. Doesn’t one just feel a little cozier to you?

So what do you think? I’m curious to hear your thoughts on what creates a cozy vibe, indoor or outdoor, during the winter.

I can’t believe I took this pic…snow day from the top of the Empire State Building!