Municipal signage and schematics, as design firm Pentagram's recent work on New York's beach and parking signage attests, can play a significant role in (re)defining the character of urban space.

There are many, many maps of New York City. There are the decor maps, sold on Amazon, and the tourist maps, which focus, erroneously, only on Manhattan. There’s the iconic subway map, as well as the ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Melissa is a writer based in Brooklyn. New York’s Metrocard is about to join the subway token as a transit relic from the past.