Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) presents the 2011 edition of its popular Access Restricted series with a fifth installment, Lower Manhattan Revealed.

In this interview between journalist and author Jeff Byles (Rubble: Unearthing the History of Demolition) and architect Michael Sorkin, Sorkin stresses the importance of redefining the city towards a more self sufficient model, one in which pedestrians rule the street and public transportation is the main priority. He critiques the shortcomings of using an economic system based on land value, and proposes a plan to harmonize a city's demand with it's capacity to produce--hint: we should "put the orchard back on Orchard Street."

Michael Sorkin is Distinguished Professor of Architecture and Director of the Graduate Program in Urban Design at the City College of New York. He lectures widely and is the author of several hundred articles on architectural and urban subjects, and for ten years he was the architectural critic of the Village Voice. His books include Variations on a Theme Park, Exquisite Corpse, Giving Ground (edited with Joan Copjec), Wiggle, Local Code, Some Assembly Required, The Next Jerusalem, After the World Trade Center (edited with Sharon Zukin), Starting from Zero, Against the Wall, Indefensible Space and Twenty Minutes in Manhattan. Sorkin is also Board Chair of The Institute for Urban Design.

Jeff Byles has written about architecture, urbanism, and culture for The New York Times, The Village Voice, Metropolis, Modern Painters, Cabinet, The Believer, and other publications. Among his recent projects, he has co-edited The New York 2030 Notebook (Institute for Urban Design, 2008) and is co-author of the forthcoming History of Design (Norton, 2011).