The exhibition marks 100 years since work began on the seminal Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs in 1922 and is designed and produced by the architect James Sanders, co-writer and producer with Ric Burns of the Emmy Award-winning eight-part PBS series, New York: A Documentary Film.

The two-story installation will be open free to the public, seven days a week, from 11 am to 7 pm, October 7th to October 24th, 2022.

Within the exhibition, dramatic photomurals floating overhead transport visitors to a ​“dream city” of imagination and possibilities, of dazzling urban visions, built and unbuilt—and of the transformative ideas that have reshaped New York, its surrounding region, and, in time, cities all around the world.

At eye-level, a series of large display panels combine engaging text, a rich array of images, and archival video sequences to trace the epic story of New York and its environs: the first urban area in the world to reconceive itself as a regional metropolis, an idea so familiar today it is almost commonplace, but a radical, innovative and daring new way of thinking in the 1920s.

In the exhibition, RPA’s four landmark Regional Plans—from 1929, 1968, 1996, and 2017— serve as the center point around which the story of the metropolis revolves. These are remarkable cultural products of their own time, as well as bold, imaginative, and influential responses to formidable challenges which, in many cases, remain as urgent today as ever. Intertwined with that broad narrative will be many of the most crucial events, trends, figures, and themes of the city and its region over the past century—from the rise of the car and highway in the 1920s to postwar ​“white flight” to the city’s rebirth after 9/11, from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Jane Jacobs to Michael Bloomberg, from the GM Futurama to the High Line to Superstorm Sandy. Not least of these is the ​“secret history” of the complex, decades-long relationship of the Regional Plan and the legendary New York power broker Robert Moses, who drew many of his grandest, region-shaping ideas from the Plan’s proposals—though he never publicly acknowledged the debt.

Bringing the century-long story up to the present moment—as the city and region attempt to recover from an unprecedented three-year crisis and look to shape their future yet again—the exhibition concludes with an interactive QR display that asks viewers to imagine their own future of New York and its region and contribute ideas to a broader conversation which, with the extraordinary events of the recent past, has grown more urgent and open-ended than ever.

Filled with ideas and stories, brought to life by an astonishing assemblage of seldom-seen images from RPA’s vast archive, and set within one of America’s grandest urban landmarks, The Constant Future: A Century of the Regional Plan offers viewers a sweeping overview of America’s greatest metropolis, and explores as perhaps never before the very notion of planning itself: the inspired imagining—and detailed envisioning—of a city, a region, and a world still to come.