VOL · ISUMMER 2026
stay cool
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← FROM THE FIELD · VOL. I, N° 88PLATE B · ELEVATION · SUN ALT 56°AFTERNOON · LONG ISLAND CITY · GANTRY
PLATE · ELEVATION · 3 PM SHADOWSALESFORCE TOWER · HALF-MILE SHADOW NORTHEAST
NEW YORK · FIELD NOTES · 5 MIN

LIC, in the gantry shadows.

Long Island City’s waterfront is exposed by definition. The trick is using the high-rise grid two blocks back to walk it cool. Three picks for the Queens side of the river.

By

The LIC waterfront is glorious and sun-blasted from 10 AM to 6 PM. The cool walks all live one or two blocks inland, where the new 50-story towers throw the heaviest building shadow in Queens onto the streets running parallel to the river. Vernon Boulevard becomes a shade canyon after 1 PM; 21st Street and 5th Avenue stay cool from 9.

These three pair waterfront destinations with the inland approach. Stay Cool will pull you off the waterfront promenade automatically when the sun is past 30° — the riverside path has no shade and the building grid does.

The picks · 3.Graded JUN 12, 2026
  1. 01
    Court Square to Gantry Park (via Vernon)

    South on Vernon Blvd. The 1 Court Square shadow covers blocks 47–46th; the new Hunters Point towers cover 45–44th.

    Shade
    80%
    Walk
    11 min
    Best at
    2 pm
  2. 02
    Queensboro Plaza to MoMA PS1

    Through the elevated rail’s afternoon shadow on 23rd Street. PS1’s south wall takes you the last block.

    Shade
    72%
    Walk
    9 min
    Best at
    1:30 pm
  3. 03
    Hunters Point Library to Five Star Diner

    East on 49th Avenue. The shaded north side of the street keeps you under the cantilever from the new towers.

    Shade
    76%
    Walk
    8 min
    Best at
    3 pm

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About the author
Amar Braithwaite is the founder of Stay Cool. He builds shade-aware navigation tools and writes the Field Notes corpus on urban shade infrastructure. Read the why →

Walk in the shade.

Stay Cool computes a shadow-aware route for any city we map.

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