Tyler Cukar, 38

Mammoth redevelopments, eye-popping property sales, and new skyscrapers make New York one of the world’s most exciting real estate markets. Deliberate, thoughtful designs for the combined streetscape, parks and the public realm — the subject that Tyler Culkar has zeroed-in on throughout his career — are what make New York feel like a true community. 

A decade spent working at New York City-based architecture firm FXCollaborative, where he helps direct the urban design team, has given Cukar numerous chances to enhance parks, plazas and pedestrian spaces, finding new ways to thread together the city’s marquee buildings. 

He recently focused on redesigning Fifth Avenue, crafting a detailed vision for transforming the thoroughfare with landscaping and pedestrian improvements, and that required a delicate balance between the streetscape and stakeholder interests. For Cukar, who considers himself a consensus builder, it was a perfect distillation of his approach, melding the needs of store owners and pedestrians, often diametrically opposed, into a strong, singular vision that would make a visitor from Queens or Quito feel at home. 

“It’s very simple, but it has such a huge impact, and it’s something that can be taken across the city,” he said.

Cukar is also currently working with the New Rochelle Transit Center, trying to elevate the Metro North terminus in a Westchester County city that has seen an explosion in multifamily and mixed-use development, but needs better urban design and integration to help its downtown become a more sought-after destination. 

During the dawn of a new administration in New York City — which appears poised to focus on urbanism, quality-of-life issues and non-car infrastructure like street diets and bike lanes — Cukar sees many opportunities to work on the ultimate urban canvas. Rezonings and redevelopments will suddenly create new pockets of more heavily residential space across New York City that need a new vision for shared public space. 

“The streets are where you live your life,” he said, “and, so, to be able to help shape those experiences, those destinations and those connectors, it’s really shaping people’s lives.”