Bryant Park

In 1884, Reservoir Square as it was then called was renamed Bryant Park, to honor the recently deceased poet and editor William Cullen Bryant. William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) was a poet, newspaper editor, and civic minded reformer. A major transformation took place beginning in the 1890s, when the Croton Reservoir was pulled down to make way for the construction of the New York Public Library building.

In 1878 the Sixth Avenue Elevated Railway was constructed and literally cast a shadow over the park until the line was closed in 1938. In November 1934, Architecture magazine called Bryant Park ,”one of the most disreputable parks in the city.” The park fell in to further disrepair during the construction of the subway that replaced the 6th Avenue line know as the El. That period the park was used for storage of construction equipment and otherwise filled with debris.

New York City’s powerful parks commissioner, the legendary public-works “czar” Robert Moses, undertook a rescue and redesign of the park during the Great Depression. Architect Lusby Simpson won the competition for the park’s redesign, a classical scheme of a large central lawn, formal pathways, stone balustrades, and borders of London plane trees, together with an oval plaza, containing the Lowell Fountain, at the west end, separated from Sixth Avenue by a broad flight of steps.

Bryant Park once again fell into terrible disrepair becoming a center for drug dealing and crime . As the neighborhoods around the park declined the park became virtually abandoned and New Yorkers seemed to have given up Bryant Park as an urban amenity, and as an historic site. In 1974, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Bryant Park as a Scenic Landmark, calling it “a prime example of a park designed in the French Classical tradition… an urban amenity worthy of our civic pride.” Five years later, William H. (“Holly”) Whyte wrote in a report solicited by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund: “If you went out and hired the dope dealers, you couldn’t get a more villainous crew to show the urgency of the situation.”
The Rockefeller Brothers created the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation (BPRC), under the founding leadership of Andrew Heiskell, then Chairman of Time Inc. and the New York Public Library, and Daniel A. Biederman, a Harvard Business School graduate and systems consultant with a reputation as an innovator in downtown management. Heiskell and Biederman, in 1980, created a master plan for turning around the park. and it was said , “Biederman began experimenting with a series of efforts to bring people back to the park, while also exploring how to generate revenue.” Herculean effort combined supplementary park maintenance, temporary kiosks, and public events ranging from historical park tours to concerts, reduced crime by 92 percent and doubled the number of annual park visitors.

By the summer 1988 city agencies approved BPRC’s most ambitious plans yet ,drafted by architects Hanna/Olin Ltd. to build new entrances for increased visibility from the street level, to enhance the formal French garden design ,with a lush redesign by Lynden Miller, and to improve and repair paths ,stonework and lighting. BPRC’s plan also included restoration of the park’s monuments, and finally renovation of its long-closed restrooms. That same summer, the city also approved BPRC’s designs by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, for two restaurant pavilions and four concession kiosks.

Nowadays Bryant Park ,has become a center for cultural and civic events. Bryant Parks hosts movies, plays, shows and open air markets all year round and is located on 500 5th Avenue Number 1120 ,New York, NY 10018

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