The essential urban oasis

Central park is more than an urban park in the conventional sense; unlike a number of city parks that are little more than arrangements of shrubs, trees and the requisite playground equipment, Central Park by contrast, is the epicenter of social and cultural activity for the city of New York. Ever since established as a public park in 1859 hitherto, the site constitutes a collective backyard to the city residents and an icon of this metropolis the world over.
The 843 acres of manmade green space in the heart of Manhattan, forms an integral aspect with the neighborhoods adjoining the park; these quarters of varying land-use, density and demographic character all enjoy the respite the park bestows. It’s probably not an overstatement to declare: that the establishment of such naturalized environment contributed to the enduring viability and success of New York City as a capital of arts, culture and all things urbane. Without this verdant breathing space, it’s conceivable that the gridded bedlam of the nineteenth century industrial city; - consumed by smog, grime and squalled living conditions would become injurious to the wellbeing of city inhabitants, and reduce the eminence of the city on the national and international stage. Nevertheless, the park carries on as the founders essentially envisioned: an authentically democratic space, where the many segments of society can partake in the full gamut of activities the site offers.

Performance/retail along the perimeter of the park, - several artist entertain park goers with their talent; while simultaneously selling their crafts as keepsake for visitors.

another popular activity is to have your portrait done by one of the various artist along the park entrances

The “Sheep Meadow” provides an open space buffered by tree-lined edges where people can engaged in a number of activities: passive (reading, picnic, talking, sunbathing), or active (frisbee, beach balls toss). However, the throng of park-goers are frequently compiled in a collection of smaller groups disperse around the lawn.

Generally speaking it appears that locals engaged in organized activities which occupy the interior of the park. Tourists on the other hand seem to engage in sightseeing primarily, with the requisite photo-op at the famous landmarks in the interior and outer edge of the park.

Active engagements, such as volleyball also attract spectators as a passive engagement.

Visitors enjoy the photo opportunities next to the famous landmarks.
Here a group assembles around the “imagine” mosaic in Strawberry Fields.

The scale of the park and intricate topography creates a placid rendezvous for discovery, - especially with couples.

Bethesda fountain and plaza functions as a landmark, a respite, a focal point, and
transitional space at the crossroads of the Mall and celebrated lake.

The axial quality reminds us this is simply an impression of the natural world. Nevertheless, this stately promenade lined with Elm trees is a soothing contrast to the busy boulevards adjacent to the parks edges.

Enterprising performers amuse passersby throughout the park

On weekends when roads traversing Central Park are closed to motor vehicles; joggers, roller bladders, cyclist and all assortments of self-propelling vehicles enjoy the unencumbered lanes.

Bird watching enthusiasts take advantage of the ecosystem the park supports and the sociable environment the site generates.

People watching always a fashionable activity in public urban spaces

Interstitial Space - Paley Park

The cozy pocket park in Midtown Manhattan is a splendid example of a lively urban space, the type promoted by renowned urban designer, Jan Gehl in his celebrated book; Life Between Buildings, (1971). Contrary to the neglected interstitial spaces often found in cities, Paley Park is an exemplary verdant, sociable space, nestled among tall buildings in a busy quarter of the city, the site feels removed from the chaos of the city; while preserving awareness of street movement. Features like the eye-catching waterfall effectively assists in generating a serene atmosphere, while muting street noise; the generous shade courtesy of the series of honey locust trees; and finally, the amount of movable seating completes the holistic character of the park.

Food facilities are often a feature in well-attended, animated parks; at Paley, visitors have the benefit of a food consignment incorporated into the park.

The Waterfront - Battery Park City

Cities around the world have gradually discovered the social and economic potential of repurposing and rehabilitating former industrial sites, such benefits are particularly rewarding when the former brownfield occurs along a waterfront. The area occupied by Battery Park City in Lower Manhattan, New York City once housed a vigorous mercantile and shipping industries, nevertheless, as these enterprises faltered, it was the task of business leaders and elected officials to envision a new future for the waning piers and shipping activities of this area. One such visionary was Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, as early as the 1960’s he spearheaded the concept and master plan to transformed the blighted zone into a civic and socioeconomic nucleus in lower Manhattan, a zone which integrated diverse land use including; institutional, commercial and residential element, in addition, to public gardens and recreational open spaces. Planning and design incorporate the constructive features of the site’s topography and spatial characteristics. The waters edge provides at once a natural attraction and a definitive edge to the districts form, the resulting esplanade runs as a spine which connects all the cultural, recreational and civic amenities. Successful social spaces serve as a civic asset for resident and visitors to the society at large. Today Battery Park City contains 9.3 million square feet of commercial space, 7.2 million square feet of housing, 9000 residents, 52 shops and services, 35-acres of parks, 22 restaurants, 20 works of public art, 3 public schools, 2 hotels, a multi-screen movie theatre, a marina, a 1.2 mile esplanade, the Irish Hunger Memorial, Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York Police Memorial and Skyscraper Museum.1

On the lawn area there’s a variety of toys and games visitors can make use of while at the park, such amenities encourages park visitors’ interaction. The shared games and facilities foster a sense of community, akin to Oscar Newman’s theory of “defensible spaces’ sites where the different constituency feel like stake holders.

The esplanade serves as an extension of the street patter and arterial connector to the different nodes of activity along the linear park.

The viewshed is one of the main attractions; supported by active and passive engagement spaces.

Times Square: the place that media built

Times Square is a paradox; the fact that a site which is neither the repository of national monuments, religious iconography, or architecture of much consequence should attract millions of adherents each year is bewildering. The enduring popularity of this glorified arterial corridor owes much of its mystic to the storied depiction in pop culture; movies, music, and famous televised events, like the annual New Year’s Eve ball drop and other high profile events during the years have contributed to the site immeasurable fame. Nevertheless, from its early existence the site which borrows its name from the famed New York Times Publishing headquarters located at this junction in 1904, has transformed the social/civic profile of the city.

Perhaps the limited public space and prior to the proliferation of television sets and live broadcast, crowds frequently gathered outside the New York Time building to follow news and sporting events: in the photo above, crowds following the Jack Dempsey vs. George Carpentier fight, 1921.*1

People gather on the former sphere of the automobile; relax, spend more time and certainly more money on the pedestrian mall.

Clearly defined pedestrian, cycling and motor vehicle corridors help reduce spatial and circulation conflicts.

Pedestrian can lawfully overflow into the street along the outlined pedestrian way as part of the most recent modification under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The transformation of time square into possibly the most visited pedestrian promenade in the country was started on a trial basis on May 2009, the promenade was subsequently made permanent at the start of 2010, with the stated goal by the city was to curb pollution, improve traffic flow and reduce the pedestrian accidents in this zone. With 350,000 people walking through Times Square every day, injuries here are 140 percent higher than in nearby areas, said Janette Sadik-Khan, the city's transportation commissioner.2

Street performers are a sure way to produce lively streets that engage passerby and facilitate the likelihood of triangulation.

Pure Americana: the fabled thoroughfare is the Mecca of popular culture and an unabashed homage to American capitalism; thus is not unexpected such a space would thrive when we consider the expansion of media conglomerates and the inexorable spread of globalization.
Above; Times Square borrows a page from the bordering theatre district, and manufactures a sensory spectacle of lights and sounds, however the main event, - people watching.

The genuine public realm supports the democratic values of free assembly and free speech for all citizens. Like in this set of images where groups are allowed to proselytizing and dialogue with passersby.

2-http://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/14/realestate/perspectives-great-white-way-planning-for-a-brighter-times-sq.html

3- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/23/AR2009052301535.html

Saturday afternoon at Bryant Park - flexible seating arrangement on the popular lawn

Bryant Park

Bryant Park has witness its share of redesigns and the transformations of its surroundings.
Knows as Reservoir Park, until 1884 when it was renamed in honor of notable poet and editor of the New York Evening Post, William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878).
The site evolved, or some will say, - devolve as the city density enveloped the surrounding areas. During the New Deal era the portentous Robert Moses procured federal funds to revamp several parks within the city including Bryant Park, which by 1934 was completed in the neoclassical revival, very fashionable at the time.
However, the precipitous changes to the character of the adjacent environs proved too distressing for the social/civic life of the park. As is often the case, the hypersensitivity of open spaces to their contextual form is overlooked by planners and designers; the various concepts and their programmatic elements often lagged the swift growth of the country’s largest metropolis. For example, the romantic inspired park of the early 1900’s became overshadowed by changes in taste and activities undertaken in public parks. The zeitgeist of neoclassical revival design omitted the spatial changes occurring in the social backdrop.
As a result the park often lacked relevance, which lead to its sheer decline in the decades that followed; by the 1970’s, the park was dominated by vagrants and junkies becoming a no-go area for most residents of the city.
To a great extent the park’s resurgence resulted from an effective public – private partnership and endowments from wealthy benefactors. Nevertheless, just as the neighboring typologies were insufficiently considered during the transformation throughout the decades, the rehabilitation of the vicinity is not sufficiently credited with the resurgence of Bryant Park.
Likewise, the 1992 restoration of the site by Olin Studio (landscape architects) provided amenities that fostered a viable, lively respite for residents and vacationers alike.

The addition of regularly scheduled events, like the popular summer film series, help reclaim the park as social hub for the broader community. Areas of passive,or active engagement allow visitors ample opportunities to socialize: from active areas like ping pong tables, petanque/boules lawns, to flexible seating arrangement, cafes and reading room make this the wholesome destination it is today.

Lawns always a popular space for visitors to congregate, nevertheless, so many parks neglect to foster considerate use of this segment of the park.




Pregrill, Phillips. Volkman, Nancy. Landscape in History - Design Planning in the Western Tradtion. Van Nostrand Reinhold.1992
http://www.theolinstudio.com/#/intro
http://www.bryantpark.org/about-us/history.html

South Oxford Park

South Oxford Park in Brooklyn, NY is a genuine urban oasis adjoining South Oxford and Cumberland Streets. The park provides a flexible space for either passive or interactive engagement; the vital - “third place,” essential to most city dwellers.
The once vacant lot was transformed thanks to the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, which recognized the potential and likely benefits for area residents. Emmanuel Thingue a landscape architect with the city identified the site’s remarkable advantage for an urban park. Notwithstanding the ruble and weeds at that time, Thingue stated to Landscape Architecture Magazine’s June 2008 issue, the virtues the site possessed: “unobstructed sky in every direction and no tall buildings to eat up the sun or throw long shadows.”
The park which opened to the public on June of 2007 certainly took advantage of its prominent location and layout. Consequently, the charming park of approximately an acre, feels airy, lively and the various programmatic elements facilitate casual interaction among park visitors; - the open lawn, children play area, tennis courts; all provide an assortment of activities for a broad segment of the community to gather and intermingle. Moreover, unlike the other public spaces visited thus far, this park main objective is to solidify the character of this community, not act as a tourist attraction. The network of neighborhood parks amidst the residential corridors provide social cohesion for the overhaul social and ecological integrity of the metropolitan region a indispensable factor in a era of growing environmental consciousness.

The main attraction has to be the “cattail” inspired sculptures; a visual focal point and irresistible water spray to children and adults.

View of Hopkins plaza just minutes after 5pm.on a Thursday afternoon.

Empty store fronts part of the abandoned Morris A. Mechanic theatre, this blight in such prominent location deprives the plaza and surrounding areas of valuable pedestrian traffic.

Lunchtime Hopkins Plaza 12:15pm Thursday

Hopkins Plaza

Mid-century new urbanism

Hopkins Plaza in Baltimore, Maryland is the product of a broader urban revitalization program conceived by the city’s authority in the late 1950’s. Charles Center as it became known sought to rehabilitate and “modernize” the image of this corridor of downtown. Hopkins plaza is actually one segment at the southern edge of what is in effect, a trio of plazas/ open spaces conceived to grant the downtown area a large civic space for gatherings, concerts, festival, and other entertainment events. The open spaces encapsulated by government office towers and business interest prove to be a progressive concept at the time, even winning praise by notable architectural and planning critic, Jane Jacobs; Jacobs admired the projects holistic approach and the rejection of the tabula rasa approach prevalent in most post-war urban renewal, - Jane Jacobs noted: “ this is less of a project than an integral, continuous part of downtown”, and “… from someone who is so grateful to be delighted for a change, instead of depress and disheartened by a downtown project.”1

Nonetheless, there was still a degree of disruption to the community, the site occupied today by Hopkins Plaza was once a thriving commercial center, yet, the Charles Center project did very little to restore the small business opportunities in order to mitigate the economic hardship to the area. Furthermore, to create the superblock Hanover and Redwood streets were interrupted to develop the new plaza, further disjointing the small business sector. The plazas enjoyed a relatively brief a period of interest form the community at large, with public concerts and open markets. Today it’s chiefly the office employees of the adjacent towers that utilize the plaza for lunchtime gathering, at other times the plaza receives few visitors, undoubtedly a result of the limited visibility from the street and sidewalk levels.
Another contributing factor to scant visitors is the layout where vendors are relegated to the periphery of the plaza which in turn fosters a circulation patterns radiating from the interior of the site to the outer edges in search of restaurants, and sidewalk vendors, in contrast, very few pedestrians are observed entering the plaza to utilize the seating facilities. Yet again, it could be the ambiguous appearance of the plaza to the average passerby, who could assume this plaza is the domain of the corporate towers for the exclusive enjoyment of their employees. This seems to be a common problem for urban plazas, the adjacency of open spaces to office buildings replete with suburban commuters appear uninviting to other factions of the urban community. In 1997 renovation were undertaken to remove most of the skywalks in an attempt to reestablish street level pedestrian setting.


1-McCarthy, Michael P.,Warren, Marion E.,The Living City: Baltimore's Charles Center & Inner Harbor Development.2002

One current example in New York City at the corners of W.13 St. and Washington St., almost in the shadows of the High Line a modest set back from the street furnishes the block with an attractive little plaza with distinctive seating and contemporary pavers. The quandary: is this seemingly public space at the main entrance for the Standard Hotel a democratic/unrestricted site or is patronage a prerequisite to occupy the space?

Democracy and the unambiguous public spaces

The public - private partnership has proven a successful model for urban regeneration; nonetheless, the vague differentiation of the public environments from private endeavors could have an alienating result on the social life of the public/pseudo public realm.

Certainly, it could be argued that civic and social life has migrated to the virtual sphere where it enjoys enthusiastic support, thus, a genuine unbiased brick and mortar public space could be considered an outmoded prospect; anachronistic, - like spittoons, or rotary public phones on every street corner.
Nevertheless, what is forsaken by this shift in civic/social expectation, and are we willing to discard the duties and responsibilities enshrined in our national ethos: peaceable assembly, free speech and civic participation, in exchange for embellishment and a false sense of security...what does it suggest regarding the fortitude of a democracy in the 21st century… Unfortunately, these consideration and many like them are not integral part of the civic debate, hence, by omission our silence sanctions the relentless corporate transformation of the public urban realm.

foci and social interaction

The amphitheatre seating provides a casual atmosphere, visual interest and the likelihood of impromptu interaction; what William Whyte calls,” triangulation”.
In this node a mixture of couples, groups, and families with young children congregate; moreover, it’s from this unique junction spanning breadth of the street that visitors can experience the most engaging view to the animated streets below.

The High Line

Following the rapid growth and transformation of Manhattan’s West Side (Chelsea and the Meatpacking district,) the Highline opened to the public in 2009, a much needed landmark and respite for the area residents. The adaptive reuse of the abandoned railway into a linear park aims to be an integral part of the village’s new social structure.
Although, well attended on the weekend we visited, (perhaps, still enjoying its novelty status, or due to the spring weather) nonetheless, its unique features could be a constraint for its long-term raison d’être as an urban park. A contradiction to the axiom of notable urbanist like William Whyte and Jane Jacobs; the park and pathways are for the most part divorced from the commerce and active life at street level; - in one the world’s most cosmopolitan cities.
On the other hand, the siting and dimensionality gives the impression of mitigating the verticality by bringing the surrounding buildings back into a human scale. This semi-public space shares some of the common elements with the side walk café, and just like sidewalk café’s this is a passive space where the main attraction is to see and be seen, its linear proportions and the relatively narrow walkways propel visitors along the wonderful viewshed corridor, thanks to the generous setbacks. When all phases of the park are completed, it would provide alternatives for pedestrian circulation, especially during the winter months when the sidewalks below are enveloped in shade from the surrounding buildings. Another observation is the orientation of the most recent and proposed developments which make a conscious efforts to visually or physically engage the Highline Park, one strategy essential for the long term viability of the park. Ultimately how will the facilities adequately balance the potentially disparate programmatic requirements for local visitors in contrast to the tourist constituency could be the key for enduring success.

New York City Public Spaces

Social aspect of urban form
preface:

Observation is the principle element of the scientific method, and for this research seminar: Social Aspect of Urban Forms New York city’s wealth of public spaces offers the opportunity for a critical ethnographic assessment of the influence of the built environment on behavioral activity in the urban realm.