Bryant Park is a 9.603 acre (39,000 m²) privately-managed public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is bounded by Fifth Avenue, Sixth Avenue, 40th Street and 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan. [1] The central building of the New York Public Library is in the park. Although part of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Bryant Park is managed by a private not-for-profit corporation, the Bryant Park Corporation.

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History

In 1686 when the area was still a wilderness, New York's colonial governor Thomas Dongan designated the area now known as Bryant Park as a public space. George Washington's troops crossed the area while retreating from the Battle of Long Island in 1776. Bryant Park was a potter's field (a graveyard for the poor) from 1823 to 1840, when thousands of bodies were moved to Ward's Island. ^[2]

The first park at this site opened in 1847 as Reservoir Square. It was named after its neighbor, the Croton Distributing Reservoir. In 1853, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations with the New York Crystal Palace, with thousands of exhibitors, took place in the park.

The square was used for military drills during the American Civil War, and was the site of some of the New York Draft Riots of July 1863, when the Colored Orphan Asylum at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street was burned down.

In 1884, Reservoir Square was renamed Bryant Park, to honor the New York Evening Post editor and abolitionist William Cullen Bryant. In 1899, the Reservoir building was removed and construction of the New York Public Library building began. Terraces public facilities, and kiosks were added to the park.

However the construction of the Sixth Avenue Elevated railway in 1878 had cast a literal and metaphorical shadow over the park, and by the 1930s the park had suffered neglect and was considered disreputable. The park was re-designed in 1933-1934 as a Great Depression public works project under the leadership of Robert Moses. The new park featured a great lawn, and added hedges and later an iron fence to separate the park from the surrounding city streets. The park was temporarily degraded in the late 1930s by the tearing down of the El and the construction of the IND Sixth Avenue Line subway.

By the 1970s, Bryant Park had been taken over by drug dealers, prostitutes and the homeless. It was nicknamed "Needle Park" by some, due to its brisk heroin trade, and was considered a "no-go zone" by ordinary citizens and visitors. From 1979 to 1983, a coordinated program of amenities, including a bookmarket, a flower market, cafes, landscape improvements, and entertainment activities, was initiated by a parks advocacy group called the Parks Council and immediately brought new life to the park -- an effort continued over the succeeding years by The Bryant Park Restoration Corporation, which had been founded in 1980 by a group of prominent New Yorkers, including members of the Rockefeller family, to improve conditions in the park. In 1988, a privately funded re-design and restoration was begun by the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation under the leadership of Dan Biederman, with the goal of opening up the park to the streets and encouraging activity within it.

In 1992, the new Bryant Park re-opened and was an instant and spectacular success, attracting local workers and tourists to it.

Bryant Park today

Bryant Park now has a Parisian feel, and has been compared to Jardin du Luxembourg. When re-opened, the re-designed garden was planted as an English style perennial border in tones of whites, pinks, and blues. Four thousand movable green chairs and five hundred tables are available for sitting in the park.

In pleasant weather, many area office workers lunch in Bryant Park. Dining spots in the park include Bryant Park Grill, Bryant Park Café and 'wichcraft.

In the summer of 2002, the Bryant Park Wireless Network was launched, allowing free WiFi internet access within the park. More than 60,000 users per year use this feature.

New York Fashion Week is held in tents in Bryant Park each September and February.

On Monday evenings during the summer, HBO, headquartered across the street from Bryant Park, presents the Bryant Park Summer Film Festival. Movies are projected onto a large screen and people sit on the lawn to watch. On Friday mornings during the summer, ABC's Good Morning America presents the Summer Concert Series. There is no admission charge for either event. Bryant Park also is host to multiple other programs and amenities: a carousel, petanque and knitting lessons, and concerts. A calendar of Summer events is published annually as well as a guide to the park's horticulture, published each Spring, Summer and Fall.

The New York Yankees have hosted free events in the park; in September 2005 and May 2006 they hosted, with sponsor Continental Airlines, "Pinstripes in the Park". Like with the film festival, the game was projected on a large screen for fans to watch. Approximately 8000 fans showed up in 2005 to watch the Yankees play the Baltimore Orioles and to collect autographs from former Yankee players. The New York Rangers host similar events around Christmas, when the park is set up for ice skating, to collect toys for tots.

Bryant Park can be identified in film, the most notable being the ending of the Howard Stern film Private Parts featuring the band AC/DC performing in the park (shot in July 1996) and at the beginning of Ghostbusters as Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis come running out of the library building.

In 2002, the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation founded Fetes de Noel ^[3] - a European style holiday market hosting over 120 shops (Produced by ID&A, General Producer Itai Shoffman). The shops operate within Bryant Park from November 22 to December 28. The event was upgraded in the 2005-06 winter season when BPRC and ID&A developed The Pond at Bryant Park ^[4], a temporary ice skating rink (presented by Citi), restaurant, bar, and event space, which is installed over the Bryant Park lawn from October 24 to January 26. Admission is free if you bring your own skates. There are also skates available to rent.

In 2006 the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation was renamed the Bryant Park Corporation.

During the summer, an event called Broadway in Bryant Park is held every week in the park with casts from many Broadway shows performing on a stage.

A new classical music series, entitled "Bank of America presents New York Now in Bryant Park", was established for Fall 2008 to preview the upcoming seasons of New York City's best classical music organizations. Participating in 2008 are the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, Orchestra of St. Luke's, The Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and The New York Pops. All concerts are free to the public.

Lawn closure issue

The park, while a public space, is privately managed. Private management resulted in the cleanup of the park, but another result has been that the Great Lawn, the largest public green space in midtown Manhattan, is used for revenue generation by the management company, primarily by renting it to corporations for private functions, or public events which essentially function as advertising for the corporations. The best-known of these are the twice-yearly New York Fashion Week shows, each of which completely occupy the lawn for approximately a month.

Lawn closure, or occupation by corporately sponsored events, is particularly frequent during the summer. The lawn is closed all day on Mondays in anticipation of the evening film event sponsored by HBO, is closed the following day to rest after this event, frequently closes on Thursday after the "Broadway in Bryant Park" event hosted by a local radio station, and often closes on Friday after an event paid for by ABC Television, in which outside concerts are broadcast as part of the network's Good Morning America program. ^[5] In addition, further closures occur between these events for frequent lawn waterings. This results in the Great Lawn being rarely available for the quiet enjoyment of visitors, generally the primary function of a large public lawn; during the summer, park visitors can only occasionally be seen enjoying the use of the famous green lawn chairs on the Great Lawn, other than during corporately sponsored events, which are generally noisy and crowded. This situation, and in particular the long closures due to the fashion shows, has prompted the Project for Public Spaces to place Bryant Park in its "Hall of Shame." ^[6]

Bank of America Tower

On 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue, just opposite of the park, construction is currently underway for a massive Bank of America Tower, the expected New York headquarters for Bank of America. Expected to be completed in 2008, it will be the second tallest building in New York City and a dominating structure overlooking Bryant Park.

References

1. Bryant Park, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Accessed October 15, 2007.
2. History: Reservoir Square, Bryant Park. Accessed October 15, 2007.
3. Fetes de Noel - The Holiday Shops at Bryant Park
4. The Pond at at Bryant Park - Skating Rink
5. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/05/nyregion/05park.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
6. http://www.pps.org/great_public_spaces/one?public_place_id=521