A few months late, the renovation of Tribeca Park is very nearing completion. Though some paving still needs to be installed, they removed the barriers sometime yesterday afternoon, so I guess it is ‘open.’ Tribeca Park (now fairly named) is the double triangle formed when Beach Street splits and interrupts West Broadway. Previously, it was a mean, mean place, paved entirely in cobblestones, meaning it was at best still and warm in the summer and completely exposed to the brutal wintertime winds (though this is unlikely to change). The renovation consists of a traditional paving system oriented around an oval that sits in the wide corner where the triangles meet. Surmounting the oval is low-lying planting. It’s not a big space, but given the previous desolation, it doesn’t even appear that the reduction in paved space has resulted in a net decrease of seating, which is now qualitatively far superior, benches arrayed on the perimeter of the oval. The fencing, standard parks iron post and rail style, is a knee wall, rather than full height, as is seen in the park locations that are more planting zones than parks (such as the bands of green on the north side of Houston in the East Village). It provides a nice visual delimiter while making the park very inviting. And the addition of undergrowth has clearly added to amount of fresh air one senses when walking by. Given its location, straddled by exit lanes from the Holland Tunnel, and facing the Avenue of the Americas, which serves as a entry lane during rush hour, this no mean feat.
If you wanted to be a little ingracious (as I am wont to do), you could observe that some of the details in the park renovations throughout the city tend to be a little heavy-handed on the historicist side. This tends to creep up only when something other than benches or fences are being installed. Good antidotes to this tendency can be found in the renovated piers opened in Hudson River Park last year, and many of the public spaces found throughout Battery Park City. But, overall, the work stands as a pretty satisfying coutnerpoint to the oft heard complaint (oft heard coming from my mouth) that of all the cities in this country, can’t we be allowed to expect a little more? In Tribeca Park, at least, it turns out we can.
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A flash of green.
A few months late, the renovation of Tribeca Park is very nearing completion. Though some paving still needs to be installed, they removed the barriers sometime yesterday afternoon, so I guess it is ‘open.’ Tribeca Park (now fairly named) is the double triangle formed when Beach Street splits and interrupts West Broadway. Previously, it was a mean, mean place, paved entirely in cobblestones, meaning it was at best still and warm in the summer and completely exposed to the brutal wintertime winds (though this is unlikely to change). The renovation consists of a traditional paving system oriented around an oval that sits in the wide corner where the triangles meet. Surmounting the oval is low-lying planting. It’s not a big space, but given the previous desolation, it doesn’t even appear that the reduction in paved space has resulted in a net decrease of seating, which is now qualitatively far superior, benches arrayed on the perimeter of the oval. The fencing, standard parks iron post and rail style, is a knee wall, rather than full height, as is seen in the park locations that are more planting zones than parks (such as the bands of green on the north side of Houston in the East Village). It provides a nice visual delimiter while making the park very inviting. And the addition of undergrowth has clearly added to amount of fresh air one senses when walking by. Given its location, straddled by exit lanes from the Holland Tunnel, and facing the Avenue of the Americas, which serves as a entry lane during rush hour, this no mean feat.
If you wanted to be a little ingracious (as I am wont to do), you could observe that some of the details in the park renovations throughout the city tend to be a little heavy-handed on the historicist side. This tends to creep up only when something other than benches or fences are being installed. Good antidotes to this tendency can be found in the renovated piers opened in Hudson River Park last year, and many of the public spaces found throughout Battery Park City. But, overall, the work stands as a pretty satisfying coutnerpoint to the oft heard complaint (oft heard coming from my mouth) that of all the cities in this country, can’t we be allowed to expect a little more? In Tribeca Park, at least, it turns out we can.