The New York City Department of Transportation issued a request for proposals yesterday for temporary design solutions "to renew the surface treatments at all five plazas and smaller ancillary spaces on Broadway from 42nd to 47th Streets while a long-term reconstruction project is initiated for the Bowtie beginning in 2012 in partnership with the Department of Design and Construction."

The competition was launched yesterday by DOT Commissioner Janette Sedik-Khan, who has been creating bicycle lanes in many areas of the city although cyclists do not seem to always heed the city's traffic regulations regarding stopping at red lights and going in the direction of traffic.

The selected professional artist or designer based in New York City will be awarded a $15,000 design fee by the Mayor's Fund and the design is to be installed by mid-July and will remain in place for eight months and will be maintained by the Times Square Alliance.

The deadline to submit proposals is April 16, 2010.

The temporary surface treatments are part of "Green Light for Midtown" project by the city to "improve mobility and safety," a program that was announced in February 2009 and which created new pedestrian areas in Times Square and Herald Square. In addition, the program involves "extensive safety improvements" along the Broadway corridor between Columbus Circle and Madison Square.

The city recently announced it would go ahead with the project and maintained that it has improved safety in the areas although traffic improvements reportedly have been less than anticipated.

Yesterday's press release said that the design competition "will ensure these places remain vibrant, inviting and dynamic." The release said that simultaneous with the design competition, "the capital process will begin to design world-class plazas with amble seating, new paving and underground infrastructure able to accommodate and enhance the signature events that are staged at Times Square throughout the year," adding that "the project will also completely reconstruct the roadways in Times Square, which have not been structurally repaired in decades."

Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, said that "Times Square - a place where creativity and boldness are always on display - is increasingly becoming a place for public art and creative innovation in the public realm."

The request for proposals materials notes that "Times Square...attracts over 350,000 pedestrians each day, more than anywhere else in the city" and the "area is home of 39 Broadway theaters, 35 hotels (accommodating 25 percent of Manhattan's hotel rooms), 250,000 employees, various cultural and commercial events, public broadcasts and film shoots, and the New Year's Eve Celebration."

"Until recently, the Times Square Bowtie, the area between 47th and 42nd Streets along the lengths of both 7th Avenue and Broadway..., was overwhelmed with both pedestrian and vehicular traffic. The hundreds of thousands of people who flood into Times Square every day were being relegated to only 11 percent of the public space available. This common occurrence caused the term 'pedlock' to be coined at this location. Many people were forced to work in the road simply to move through the area."

Eight established architectural firms have been selected to work on permanent designs: Asymptote, BKSK, Enrique Norten, Grimshaw, Rogers Marvel, Selldorf, Snohetta and Thomas Pfifer.