I did it as a civic gesture.

What needs to be changed are the civic gestures that the building makes to the street.

In New York today, virtually all major works of architecture are private ones: noble civic gestures are something of the past.

You can forgive the museum for making what it probably took to be a highly civic gesture.

That civic gesture is one indication of this festival's steady maturation; another would be its nonprofit status, and the concomitant support of several sources of arts funds.

His Democratic politics may have been a disadvantage in an increasingly Republican region and his civic minded gestures helped others who did not always help him in return.

Mr. LeFrak, who recently celebrated his 70th birthday, said the proposal "provides me with an opportunity to present a civic gesture to the City of New York."

Symphony orchestras in this country begin as civic gestures.

They left out of self-interest but asserted that they had made a civic gesture of protest and looked down on those who had stayed on, almost boycotting them.

He was thinking about making a civic architectural gesture complete with molding - a grand stair inspired by the Spanish Steps in Rome.