Manhattan Parks
Parks and Squares of Manhattan
Bryant Park. Beautiful place. Classical European layout. Fountain feature welcomes visitors from Sixth Avenue, leading to a central lawn nicely framed with gravel, flanked by walkways adorned with tall trees (platanus acerifolia). Lots of furniture, chairs, tables, shades, and shops. Mid-size office buildings surround the park providing spectacular views. Bounded by 42nd St to the North, 40th St to the South, Sixth Avenue to the West, Fifth Avenue to the East. Central axis goes East-West. (May 2021)
Evelyn Street Garden. Peaceful corner in Nolita, feels like a terrace of an old mansion. Limestone features and sculpture bring the place to life, with lots of shade from trees and shrubbery. Rose bushes adorn the center. Added furniture make it a pleasant corner of the city to breath and get off the prodding sidewalks. Park seems to be in legal peril by city action, suggesting a story. There’s a shed housing ironwork. Entrance is on Elizabeth St. Nolita is North of Little Italy, just north of Chinatown. (June 2021)
Madison Square Park. Mid-sized park located in Midtown, where Broadway meets Fifth Avenue. Its lawns are occasionally the home to art exhibits. Views from the park are adorned by the iconic Flatiron Building and the Met Life Tower, with its distinct pyramidal roof [once the tallest building in the world]. Gravel patch with seating, tables, and sunshades. The park is the birthplace of the Shake Shack burger chain, with a location still operating on premise. (March 2022)
Morningside Park. Large community park in upper Manhattan. Lots going on: Joggers, strollers, group exercise, picnics, and BBQ-parties. Paths traverse the park in three levels, the lowest one running alongside Morningside Avenue, the highest running along the cliffs of Morningside Drive. Occasional stairwells invite you up and down. Beautifully landscaped, with generous lawns and a large water feature towards the southern end of the park. A farmer's market pops up on the weekends at the corner of Manhattan Avenue and 110th St. The park has a history of bridging tensions between affluent Morningside Heights and less ostentatious Harlem. (March 2022)
Riverside Park. Beautiful and lush, a green patch that harmonizes Upper Manhattan’s elevated terrain with the Hudson riverbank. Invited by topology, the park is laid out in stages or levels that taper from Riverside Drive at the top down to the river’s shore. The effect is a park that feels like multiple places, accommodating different activities in each context. Riverside Park’s main concourse has a wide central mall of asphalt construction flanked by majestic trees. (May 2021)
A digitally rendered aerial view of Riverside Park in upper Manhattan.Sakura Park. A cute little park in the Manhattan neighborhood of Morningside Heights. It is bounded by Riverside Drive on the West (next to General Grant's memorial). Perhaps the only thing to wish about it is it didn’t give its back to Claremont Avenue the way it does. (May 2021)
Stuyvesant Square. Nice little plaza hugging 2nd Ave, fenced and gated in beautiful ironwork. Each half has a water feature in the center surrounded by benches and luscious trees. A memorial statue of Peter Stuyvesant overlooks the Western half. (May 2021)
Tompkins Square. Located at the heart of East Village, it serves as the main park and square for the neighborhood. Spooky place weekday evenings but lively otherwise, especially during the weekends. Historically a place of protest, the modern layout of the park is said to be intended to divide and hamper demonstrations. (March 2022)
Union Square Park. Located where Broadway meets Park Avenue. Back at the place adjacent to Evelyn’s Playground and the crowd couldn’t be more diverse. People you’d never picture together, comfortably sharing benches on opposite sides. Pajamas, hats, sneakers, haircuts, and at least three discernible languages being spoken. A young lady beautifully in dark green dress, just over the knees, hair tied up, black leather boots. (May 2021)
Washington Square Park. Another beauty rich in European features. Space is structured by central water feature and Washington Arch, a tall monument in the triumphal arch tradition. All ways take you to the center, diagonal paths are intimate, main malls running North-South and East-West are wider. Lawns are tight with lots of visual exposure to foot traffic (in visual frame of passersby) but people aren’t deterred from laying down or picnics. The trees, you can see they are old... wavy, crusty, bark with molten appearance. Appreciations: Lots of harmonic activity. Bikes. A photo shoot. Some trash. Beautiful people in a hot summer day. Children playing ball. NYU student cancelling a job interview on the phone. Medium statue monument for Giuseppe Garibaldi. (June 2021)