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.