The bohemian spirit — or at least the tattered vestiges that pass for revolutionary urbanity — reigned supreme last week in the Village, when the city backed down on their threat to make Washington Square Park a hardened facility. Perhaps staking out the same level of paranoid control evidenced in Tompkins (but oddly considered unnecessary at smaller locations, such as the recently renovated Tribeca Park) as a bargaining chip, it was determined that the current standard of pulling easily adjusted temporary barricades across the entrances was an acceptable compromise.
See, the Parks Department, like any nattering parent, is really het up about their curfew. You can tell they take it serious, since they allowed the NYPD to park an unattractive converted bus there as a ‘temporary’ substation sometime in the 1850’s. Then, in the nineties, they installed dozens of security cameras and lights. All of this has been highly effective in reducing drug sales and preempting NYU undergrads crucial late-night opportunities to discover love and a convenient place to exercise its dissolution. With such a high ratio of success so far, a permanent enclosure was deemed the next best solution. If that fails, the plan is to pave over the entire area and classify it as uniformed officer parking, insuring every inch will be covered by F-150’s all the time.
But no, they backed down, and and now the major entrances will seem as opening as welcoming as possible when enrobed in a four-foot-high fence (or it is four-and-a-half?). Most of the other major renovation plans were approved, including relocating and raising the fountain, leveling the humps and rebuilding the convenience center — which includes a children’s only bathroom. How does that work? Are the doors only so high? Lastly, but significantly, they are removing many, if not most, of the chess tables, but this doesn’t seem to bother anyone.
I went and stood in the park last weekend to try and picture some of the changes, and was surprised to discover how wrong I was about a previous comment regarding the implied pathway of Fifth Avenue. Though the clear continuance of the vista as one approaches from the north is essential; however, I did not remember how off-axis the south approach is, the arch sitting nearly halfway between West Broadway/La Guardia Place (the major southern approach) and Thompson Street which is far less prominent. This implies a less symettrical plan, but the revised plan does well to provide a rational geometry that responds this condition. I don’t think the fountain relocation or raising is as crucial as revised paving, which did wonders for Tribeca Park. It will definitely improve the western end of the park, which now seems to be an undifferented mass of pathways. In such a small area, classic rules of composition will read best, and there is a nice bit of that. One thing not discussed anywhere I have seen is the penetration of the fencing. The perimeter fence is one issue, but where it becomes truly intrusive and destructive is when every green space is surrounded, as is the case in Tompkins. Such a pervasive approach will destroy the impact of the new paving, will seem unnecessarily restrictive, and destroy the sense of a park being a relief from the surrounding area.
This has been the most pernicious legacy of Henry Stern, evidenced in most major renovations (think Tompkins, the Sheep Meadow, etc.). Natural pathways are obstructed, the appearance of said fencing seems arbitrary, and if it is going to be permanent, throughways or entrances need be better marked. What we are left with is our moment of green interspersed by a haze of fencing, layers upon layers, and somehow we are to make sense the meandering pathways. The Parks Department uses Olmstead like a cudgel to justify every renovation while overlooking one convenient fact: he didn’t wrap every patch of grass with a ribbon of iron.
But it’s not all bad, all the time. The renovations at the East River Park are absolutely splendid. Though the promenade is still some ways from completion, the new ball fields and play areas, with decent grass, markings and such, provide the essential sense of amenity, not simply leftover land before Alphabet City falls away into the East River. A crucial gap needs to be addressed just south of the amphitheater, where two facilities interrupt the march south. Rather than making a substantial investment now, at the very least, the city could make wider the current path, and include some green space (all that would be required would be losing some parking area) before coming upon the promenade that continues to Pier 17. Though the fanciful plans forwarded by Rogers and SHoP may happen, this should not obviate finishing this path. The views of the bridges are amazing, and reviving the moribund South Street Seaport would be plausible if a clearly marked path that provide access to and from the East Village, LES, and the outer reaches of Chinatown, were established.
But even here, with many areas where fencing is practical — to establish delimits of playing fields and such — the impression is of a warren that is defined only by paved pathways. It is an unfortunate betrayal of notion of respite that drove the creation of Central Park. The current fencing in Washington Square Park is ugly, but unobtrusive, and effective enough. It can improved with becoming overwhelming, and we can hold on to a sliver of relief in a city where every outdoor space is harshly defined by vertical places.
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Bohemia ascendant?
The bohemian spirit — or at least the tattered vestiges that pass for revolutionary urbanity — reigned supreme last week in the Village, when the city backed down on their threat to make Washington Square Park a hardened facility. Perhaps staking out the same level of paranoid control evidenced in Tompkins (but oddly considered unnecessary at smaller locations, such as the recently renovated Tribeca Park) as a bargaining chip, it was determined that the current standard of pulling easily adjusted temporary barricades across the entrances was an acceptable compromise.
See, the Parks Department, like any nattering parent, is really het up about their curfew. You can tell they take it serious, since they allowed the NYPD to park an unattractive converted bus there as a ‘temporary’ substation sometime in the 1850’s. Then, in the nineties, they installed dozens of security cameras and lights. All of this has been highly effective in reducing drug sales and preempting NYU undergrads crucial late-night opportunities to discover love and a convenient place to exercise its dissolution. With such a high ratio of success so far, a permanent enclosure was deemed the next best solution. If that fails, the plan is to pave over the entire area and classify it as uniformed officer parking, insuring every inch will be covered by F-150’s all the time. But no, they backed down, and and now the major entrances will seem as opening as welcoming as possible when enrobed in a four-foot-high fence (or it is four-and-a-half?). Most of the other major renovation plans were approved, including relocating and raising the fountain, leveling the humps and rebuilding the convenience center — which includes a children’s only bathroom. How does that work? Are the doors only so high? Lastly, but significantly, they are removing many, if not most, of the chess tables, but this doesn’t seem to bother anyone. I went and stood in the park last weekend to try and picture some of the changes, and was surprised to discover how wrong I was about a previous comment regarding the implied pathway of Fifth Avenue. Though the clear continuance of the vista as one approaches from the north is essential; however, I did not remember how off-axis the south approach is, the arch sitting nearly halfway between West Broadway/La Guardia Place (the major southern approach) and Thompson Street which is far less prominent. This implies a less symettrical plan, but the revised plan does well to provide a rational geometry that responds this condition. I don’t think the fountain relocation or raising is as crucial as revised paving, which did wonders for Tribeca Park. It will definitely improve the western end of the park, which now seems to be an undifferented mass of pathways. In such a small area, classic rules of composition will read best, and there is a nice bit of that. One thing not discussed anywhere I have seen is the penetration of the fencing. The perimeter fence is one issue, but where it becomes truly intrusive and destructive is when every green space is surrounded, as is the case in Tompkins. Such a pervasive approach will destroy the impact of the new paving, will seem unnecessarily restrictive, and destroy the sense of a park being a relief from the surrounding area. This has been the most pernicious legacy of Henry Stern, evidenced in most major renovations (think Tompkins, the Sheep Meadow, etc.). Natural pathways are obstructed, the appearance of said fencing seems arbitrary, and if it is going to be permanent, throughways or entrances need be better marked. What we are left with is our moment of green interspersed by a haze of fencing, layers upon layers, and somehow we are to make sense the meandering pathways. The Parks Department uses Olmstead like a cudgel to justify every renovation while overlooking one convenient fact: he didn’t wrap every patch of grass with a ribbon of iron. But it’s not all bad, all the time. The renovations at the East River Park are absolutely splendid. Though the promenade is still some ways from completion, the new ball fields and play areas, with decent grass, markings and such, provide the essential sense of amenity, not simply leftover land before Alphabet City falls away into the East River. A crucial gap needs to be addressed just south of the amphitheater, where two facilities interrupt the march south. Rather than making a substantial investment now, at the very least, the city could make wider the current path, and include some green space (all that would be required would be losing some parking area) before coming upon the promenade that continues to Pier 17. Though the fanciful plans forwarded by Rogers and SHoP may happen, this should not obviate finishing this path. The views of the bridges are amazing, and reviving the moribund South Street Seaport would be plausible if a clearly marked path that provide access to and from the East Village, LES, and the outer reaches of Chinatown, were established. But even here, with many areas where fencing is practical — to establish delimits of playing fields and such — the impression is of a warren that is defined only by paved pathways. It is an unfortunate betrayal of notion of respite that drove the creation of Central Park. The current fencing in Washington Square Park is ugly, but unobtrusive, and effective enough. It can improved with becoming overwhelming, and we can hold on to a sliver of relief in a city where every outdoor space is harshly defined by vertical places.