Just Off Fifth: Bryant Park
One of the best urban parks in the US and thought to be the most heavily used such park in the world, Bryant Park first opened to the public in 1847 as Reservoir Square, a public garden adjacent to the immense Croton Distributing Reservoir. The site of the 1853 New York Crystal Palace Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, the park was renamed in 1884 for the distinguished newspaper editor and writer William Jennings Bryant. When the reservoir was demolished in the 1890s for the New York Public Library, the park was also redesigned, gaining fountains, terraces and other amenities.
A new design in the 1930s as a Public Works Administration project added high hedges and an iron fence that walled the park off from the city. Unfortunately, while intended to remove the noise of traffic and provide a sense of peaceful isolation, these elements also created an atmosphere conducive to illicit activities. By the 1970s the park was severely degraded and considered a no-go zone for tourists and city dwellers alike.
Beginning in the 1970s a number of private non-profit organizations were founded to provide public services and reverse the decay of Bryant Park. The most prominent of these, the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation, spearheaded a restoration program from 1988 through 1992 that removed the barriers between the park and the city, upgraded plantings, restored public art (and the spectacular restrooms, designed by Carrere & Hastings) and added hundreds of movable folding chairs to give visitors the freedom to sit where they wished.
The result is an airy, open, beautifully classical space that has been lauded as one of the most successful restorations in New York’s history and as a major catalyst in the on-going renovation and revitalization of Midtown Manhattan as a whole.