Andrew M. Manshel is the author of the Learning from Bryant Park: Revitalizing Cities, Towns and Public Spaces published in 2020 by Rutgers University Press. He now serves as Senior Advisor at Hollis Public Affairs, a minority-owned government relations firm with offices in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Albany. Most recently he was Assistant Commissioner for Franchise Administration at the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, responsible for the equitable deployment of affordable telecommunications services utilizing the public spaces of New York City. He was for almost 11 years Executive Vice President of Greater Jamaica Development Corporation and President of its Jamaica Capital Corporation and Jamaica First Parking affiliates, working to improve public space and the quality of life in a vibrant, but disinvested, African-American, Caribbean, Central American and South Asian neighborhood. Prior to that for 10 years Mr. Manshel was Associate Director and Counsel at the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation (conceptualizing and successfully implementing many of its most noted programs including its performances, the film series and the construction and leasing of the Bryant Park Grill) and General Counsel and Director of Public Amenities to the Grand Central and 34th Street Partnerships (where he structured the first tax exempt BID bond issues, developed and leased the Pershing Square Café, negotiated site control for Herald and Greeley Squares, and created the horticulture, street vendor, newsrack and public toilet programs).
Following that, he was a partner in the Real Estate Department of Kalkines Arky Zall & Bernstein LLP (now Manatt Phelps & Phillips). He later served as Vice President of Finance and Administration at Barnard College. Mr. Manshel often assists organizations on a pro bono basis in revitalizing, planning and managing public spaces, works to strengthen not-for-profits’ governance and finances and blogs about downtown and public space revitalization at theplacemaster.com. Mr. Manshel was for many years a Director and the Treasurer of Project for Public Spaces, Inc. For twenty-two years he was a member of the Board of the Riverside Park Fund. For more than a decade he served as the Co-Chair of the Streetscape Committee of the Municipal Art Society and was a member of its Law Committee. He has also served on the boards of Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, the Sutphin Boulevard Business Improvement District, and Tenet, one of New York City’s premier early music ensembles. He was an Adjunct Associate Professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business Administration where he taught “The Legal and Social Context of Business.” He has also served as a Vice Chair of the Inner City Council of the Urban Land Institute. He holds Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration degrees (with distinction) from New York University and a BA in Government (with honors) from Oberlin College.
Mr. Manshel plays the renaissance lute, baroque guitar and theorbo.