Bryant Park

What makes stretching out on the Bryant Park Lawn irresistible? This photograph taken in 1925 could easily be a scene of the park today. The similarities, however, would end there considering the Bryant Park depicted in the above photo and the Bryant Park of today. Those of you familiar with the park's evolution know that its history is dappled with periods of renovation and dereliction.  read more »

I work at the Mid-Manhattan Library at 40th Street and 5th Ave. In the evening when I leave from work, I walk down 40th Street to the subway station at 6th Ave. This spring I noticed something different, something I never noticed before. The weather was beginning to warm, the days were growing longer and there was an explosion of green coming from Bryant Park. I happen to look up as I walked west on 40th Street. At that moment, I was met with a striking, yet subtle view. I stood there a few moments to take it all in, as people hurriedly passed me by. As the world rushed around me, I felt completely alone as I stood there looking out. Along the western edge of the park, buildings covered in skins of green, blue and gray glass thrust upward with enormous energy and vigor. The area is tight with tall buildings and the emphasis on height is even greater juxtaposed with the low lush green park. I looked out upon the buildings, high in the sky and what I saw was a vertical reflecting pool, like a placid pool of water that gently lifts the surrounding landscape to your eyes. But my Midtown reflecting pool is upright and it is the skin of glass that jettisons the images outward. The view is every bit as beautiful as that which is given to us by a quiet body of water in a natural landscape. However this hard surfaced pool, streaming vertically into the sky, is a man made beauty.

I wish to rain on your parade. I think Bryant Park should not be a venue for commerce! Once again the green in Bryant Park is being traded for the green in money. In the spring and fall, the park is filled with the fashion shows and come winter there is the skating rink and the surrounding shops. I do not object to the skating rink and a small concession stand. What I do object to is Bryant Park being scheduled back to back with events throughout the year without any time alloted for it being a park.

There is so little green in the city. The beauty of Bryant Park is that it is a park, classical in style and rimmed with mature trees, beautiful plantings, and most importantly, a rectangle of green grass like no other in the city. Bryant Park is an oasis but it is never allowed to be the oasis it was designed to be. When the weather allows and the park is not blocked off to the public, people clamor to find any bit of space in the park to sit during their lunch hour and take in the wonderful setting of Bryant Park. I read in the NYTimes that even during the dark days of Bryant Park, when drug addicts and grifters were rampant, people would still converge on the park and enjoy the park despite its derelict condition.

The park is beautiful and obviously able to generate a lot of income. Certainly income needs to be made to help in the upkeep of the park but when I see the sod torn up and then replaced once, twice and thrice, money seems horribly wasted. Realistically I know that the money Bryant Park generates will always be a motivating factor to utilize the park in more money making ways.

I just find it really sad the merchandise in the shops that fill almost every spot in the park during this time of year is perceived as something special. What’s packed into those contrived little chalet-like booths can be had anywhere and better too.

My voice is a small one when it comes to defending Bryant Park. And unfortunately the sublime beauty of this well-designed park does not speak loud enough to override this terrible misuse of a grand park.