A New Voice To Promote ‘a More Livable City’

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The New York Sun

A former Internet entrepreneur with strong ties to the Bush administration is aiming to push the 115-year-old Municipal Art Society into a new phase.

“His entrepreneurial background is not an aberration — it is exactly what you would wish for,” the outgoing president of the Municipal Art Society, Kent Barwick, said of his successor, Vin Cipolla.

When Mr. Cipolla accepted the position in June, it may have marked the moment when the Municipal Art Society — whose mission is to “promote a more livable city” through urban design, architecture, and historic preservation — changed tactics.

“I think most nonprofits, the ones that do what MAS does, are like start-ups — even those with 120 years of history. The thing about a good nonprofit is that you are, by essence, generous. You are always putting back, giving away, you’re always open, letting the community come in and take your assets and bring them back out. By virtue of that, nonprofits are a lot like start-ups,” Mr. Cipolla said in a recent interview with The New York Sun.

Mr. Cipolla is already plotting the strategy of his tenure, which will be marked by the upcoming mayoral election, as well as the slowdown in development projects caused by a tighter credit market, soaring construction costs, and a contraction within the local economy.

Since 2005, Mr. Cipolla has been president and CEO of the National Park Foundation, and recently he has toured with first lady Laura Bush. Prior to that, he ducked in and out of the private sector, founding three companies whose services spanned the financial services, software, and advertising industries.

Mindful of Mr. Barwick’s 40-year tenure at the helm of Municipal Art Society, Mr. Cipolla paid homage to his predecessor, who was also present during the interview, and simultaneously laid out his own plans for the future.

Mr. Cipolla said he will draw upon his deep business and entrepreneurial background and extensive Rolodex, which extends deep within the Bush administration, to aggressively push for an enlarged membership, a more pronounced lobbying presence on Capitol Hill, and a tighter, more advanced communications strategy.

A former executive vice president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Mr. Cipolla has served as chairman of the board of trustees of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, where he oversaw the development of a new 62,000-square-foot, four-story museum on the city’s waterfront.

“I am really interested in this membership issue. It’s just too small. And I have noticed prior to coming in that the membership has been stagnant for over a decade. And so to try and crack that is exciting,” he said.

Mr. Cipolla said he is, like Mr. Barwick, dedicated to finding a way to kick-start the stalled plans to rebuild Penn Station, also known as the Moynihan Station project. He said getting the Moynihan Station project up and running would likely require a “broader legislative approach,” which could require utilizing his broad Washington reach.

Economic downturns in New York have traditionally been a time when more public works projects can flourish, and that will require added vigilance on the part of Mr. Cipolla and his staff, according to Mr. Barwick.

“There has never been a time when the MAS was more needed and more useful,” Mr. Barwick said. “A lot of the infrastructure that we need to grow is provided by the public, and the public sometimes doesn’t pay attention to it except in bad times.”

Mr. Barwick said he plans to take a year’s sabbatical upon stepping down in January, but will then be back at Municipal Art Society, where he will work as a consultant.

He said he has enjoyed his second term as president of the society, but acknowledges that he could have dedicated more resources to making his voice, and that of his 3,000 members, heard in Washington.

“The MAS is a quintessential New York organization, and I think it has sometimes been parochial, particularly in terms of Washington. We sort of pretend it doesn’t exist when in fact it is shaping the policy of what we are trying to do here,” Mr. Barwick said.


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