Times Square to become … cool?

As the city embarks on a $45 million revamp of our most-depicted urban center, the area New Yorkers love to hate may actually become enjoyable to them, New York magazine reported. Times Square, with its blazing sounds and lights, already began this transition, when the city banned cars on certain streets in 2009.

The city has hired Norwegian architecture firm Snohetta to transform Times Square, and its plans are ambitiuos to say the least, the magazine said. “Curbs will vanish. Pedestrian areas will be leveled and clad in tweedy concrete tiles that run lengthwise down Broadway … Instead of perching on metal chairs, loiterers will be able to sit, lean, sprawl, jump, and stand on 10 massive black granite benches up to 50 feet long and five feet wide.” [NY Mag]