The idea came to him while he was doing aerial studies of Brooklyn Bridge Park for Michael Van Valkenburgh, its landscape designer.

WSJ: Open-Air Status Symbols

That is because the dog spa and day-care center, Wag Club, was located on the first floor of her Brooklyn apartment building, One Brooklyn Bridge Park.

WSJ: Where Dogs Rule the Roost

The event last July was subtitled "New York Reinvented, " and some 150 French and European mayors, urban planners, developers and architects toured such recent local triumphs as the High Line, Brooklyn Bridge Park and community regeneration projects in the Bronx.

WSJ: Zoning Laws Grow Up | By Julie V. Iovine