In order to view the site properly, you will need to download the latest flash player. please download here. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a city that worked like a forest and flowed like a stream? Can you envision a truly ecological city? Building on Dr. Eric W. Sanderson's Mannahatta Project, a scientifically robust, block-by-block reconstruction of Manhattan's ecology when the island was discovered by Henry Hudson 400 years ago, Van Alen Institute will launch a design competition in Summer 2009 to imagine the long-term future of Manhattan as an ecosystem in the context of its rich ecological and social history. Teams of designers, artists, planners, engineers, scientists, economists and more will compete to publish comprehensive visions for the city and surrounding region – unconstrained by current limitations of politics, funding and time, informed by the latest innovations in urban design, and rooted in a deep understanding and extensive collection of the island's earliest known ecological data. Mannahatta 2409 is one of many projects planned to coincide with New York City's quadricentennial this year, including an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York and Dr. Sanderson's new book, "Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City" (Abrams, 2009). Van Alen Institute: Projects in Public Architecture Site Design by Webokraft LLC Image by Markley Boyer / WCS