Bryant Park Area
Bryant Park Area |
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Except for a couple subway trips to look at furniture, our June trip was confined to about a square mile in Manhattan from Central Park (north) to Bryant Park (south) between 5th and 8th avenues. We greatly enjoyed our Saturday in the park at Bryant Park, a delightful green space a block from Times Square. This spot has had its ups and downs -- most recently up since the 1980s when the Rockefeller Brothers' Fund rehabbed the spot and left behind a private organization to maintain it. (Before that, so many drug dealers congregated here that the spot was nicknamed "needle park." Since then, crime has dropped an astounding 92% with one robbery since 1981). We ate lunch in the shaded area in the picture below just to the left of the red umbrellas. In the middle of the picture, the NY public library looms over the park on the East. (In fact, the library stacks were extended beneath the green lawn starting in 1988). The picture looks east: Fifth Avenue raises its snooty nose just on the other side of the library.
Before it was a park for distributing drugs, this area was a distributing reservoir (moving water from the Central Park reservoir here to be parceled out to the neighborhood). This spot is the setting for E. L. Doctorow's novel The Waterworks set in 1871. Later the site witnessed the Crystal Palace Exhibition, New York's first world's fair which set off its first rush of tourists. Since 2002, Google has provided free WiFi (used by 50,000 people per year--you could see this page from there!)
Anyone know why all the cute folding chairs haven't been stolen long ago? Maybe no one wants to mess up that 92% crime drop statistic. In fact, the NYPD no longer assigns cops here as the park has its own private guards. The trees that surround the green space above are meant to suggest Paris as they are the same species in the Tuileries garden. More about the chairs: William H. Whyte, Jr., (remember the Organization Man?) an shrewd observer f Manhattan behavior advised a later (1988-1992) remodeling effort that parks appealed to users when they had more control over their space, including seating. So 1000 folding chairs -- similar to those found in Parisian parks -- were provided.
Bryant Square is hemmed in by famous (and not so famous) buildings. Above and below are two versions of the "radiator building" -- so called because, when lit at night, its terra-cotta gold trim makes the building appear to glow like a hot radiator. Above is our picture, below is Georgia O'Keefe's -- quite different from her nearly abstract Southwestern flower pictures. (O'Keefe's mentor, partner, lover, etc. Alfred Stieglitz had his photographic studio in a building facing Bryant Park as well).
Below is the top of the 1901 Knox Hat Building (named for a hat manufacturer) across from the southeast corner of the park. If that modern building in back looks close, it's because it actually incorporates the older Beaux Arts building into the 1983 International style HSBC bank tower. Manhattan architects usually can't tear down historic buildings so they create these most Siamese of twins.
At the opposite (northern) end are two other buildings of interest shown below. The older brownish building (with the columns arbitrarily thrusting upward near the top) is the Salmon building that we'll discuss on the next page. Next to it is the white marble 1972 W. R. Grace Building, one of two in Manhattan by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to flair outward to street level. (The better to rent out retail, my dear). The northern side of the New York Public Library is on the left. The number 4 building is (as it says) on Times Square a block away.
Finally, here's a picture below of the art deco Chrysler Building taken from the Northeast corner of Bryant Park at the edge of the library. It was the first building higher than 1000 feet and is still the world's tallest brick building.
A parting shot (really a compliment): Bryant Park has perhaps the greatest freestanding public washroom I've ever encountered (including flowers on the sink in the men's room under 10 foot ceilings of marbled tile). The original was designed by the beaux-arts architects who created the New York Public Library. The restrooms reopened about two months before our visit after a $200,000 renovation which the park management figures costs about 6 cents per visitor. (Now that's attention to detail!) The motto for the restoration was "It's our business to help New Yorkers do theirs." I am not making this up; after all, this management found a solution to the public pigeon problem many years before -- putting PETA-approved birth control chemicals in the bird's corn feedstock.