irishboyinlondon

Posts tagged "parks"

The High Line - New York (December 2011)

I love this place.  Such a simple idea - a disused rail line turned into a park!  It is now so successful that at times they have to close it due to overcrowding! An inspiring example of what communities and city halls can do together!  Visit their website here.

The High Line is a public park built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side. It is owned by the City of New York, and maintained and operated by Friends of the High Line. Founded in 1999 by community residents, Friends of the High Line fought for the High Line’s preservation and transformation at a time when the historic structure was under the threat of demolition. It is now the non-profit conservancy working with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation to make sure the High Line is maintained as an extraordinary public space for all visitors to enjoy. In addition to overseeing maintenance, operations, and public programming for the park, Friends of the High Line works to raise the essential private funds to support more than 90 percent of the park’s annual operating budget, and to advocate for the preservation and transformation of the High Line at the Rail Yards, the third and final section of the historic structure, which runs between West 30th and West 34th Streets.

The High Line is located on Manhattan’s West Side. It runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to West 34th Street, between 10th & 11th Avenues. The first section of the High Line opened on June 9, 2009. It runs from Gansevoort Street to West 20th Street. The second section, which runs between West 20th and West 30th Streets, opened June 8, 2011.

05/6/12

10 notes

cities for living  cities for people  high line  livable cities  liveable cities  nyc  parks  people first cities  public realm  urban design  urban development  urban environment  urban living  urban planning  urbanism  the high line 
camping in the city...of New York!

I love this..New York plans to redevelop existing camping facilities at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn! I wish Royal Parks and London Councils would try this…properly managed it could make London’s parks even more accessible and valuable!  Read the US DOI press release here!

Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, once the city’s first municipal airport but now virtually unused, is set to become the country’s largest urban campground. The national parks service plans to convert the space once used by Amelia Earhart and Howard Hughes into an oasis with 90 campsites within two years, and eventually building 600.

Picture: Recreation.gov

01/1/12

11 notes

urbanism  urban planning  urban design  urban space  Urban Camping  liveable cities  cities for people  cities for living  people first cities  parks 
interesting NY Times article! massurban: “Treasuring Urban Oases By Michael Kimmelman Alexander Garvin, natty in bowtie and jacket, watched commuters hustle through the gray, sunken concrete plaza at Citigroup Center on Lexington Avenue. Across 53rd Street, in the fading afternoon light, more New Yorkers ducked into a faceless subway kiosk on the triangular patch of wind-swept sidewalk — ostensibly a second public plaza — that occupies the southeast corner. This is the city’s public realm, or part of it. What passes for public space in many crowded neighborhoods often means some token gesture by a developer, built in exchange for the right to erect a taller skyscraper. Mr. Garvin, an architect, urban planner and veteran of five city administrations, going back to the era of Mayor John V. Lindsay (1966-73), has spent the better part of the last half-century thinking about these spaces. “The public realm is what we own and control,” he told me the other day when we met to look around Midtown. More than just common property, he added, “the streets, squares, parks, infrastructure and public buildings make up the fundamental element in any community — the framework around which everything else grows.” Or should grow. Writing in The New York Times last week, Christopher B. Leinberger, a professor of urban planning, took note of “a profound structural shift” in America during the last decade or so, “a reversal of what took place in the 1950s.” Back then drivable suburbs boomed while center cities decayed. Now more and more people want to settle in “a walkable urban downtown.” The most expensive housing in the country, and not just New York City, is in “high-density, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods,” he said. But what makes high-density neighborhoods pedestrian friendly? Good public space, for starters.” Via: The New York Times Photo: Richard Perry

interesting NY Times article!

massurban:

“Treasuring Urban Oases

By Michael Kimmelman

Alexander Garvin, natty in bowtie and jacket, watched commuters hustle through the gray, sunken concrete plaza at Citigroup Center on Lexington Avenue. Across 53rd Street, in the fading afternoon light, more New Yorkers ducked into a faceless subway kiosk on the triangular patch of wind-swept sidewalk — ostensibly a second public plaza — that occupies the southeast corner. This is the city’s public realm, or part of it.

What passes for public space in many crowded neighborhoods often means some token gesture by a developer, built in exchange for the right to erect a taller skyscraper. Mr. Garvin, an architect, urban planner and veteran of five city administrations, going back to the era of Mayor John V. Lindsay (1966-73), has spent the better part of the last half-century thinking about these spaces.

“The public realm is what we own and control,” he told me the other day when we met to look around Midtown. More than just common property, he added, “the streets, squares, parks, infrastructure and public buildings make up the fundamental element in any community — the framework around which everything else grows.”

Or should grow.

Writing in The New York Times last week, Christopher B. Leinberger, a professor of urban planning, took note of “a profound structural shift” in America during the last decade or so, “a reversal of what took place in the 1950s.” Back then drivable suburbs boomed while center cities decayed. Now more and more people want to settle in “a walkable urban downtown.” The most expensive housing in the country, and not just New York City, is in “high-density, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods,” he said.

But what makes high-density neighborhoods pedestrian friendly?

Good public space, for starters.”

Via: The New York Times

Photo: Richard Perry

12/13/11

18 notes

urbanism  urban planning  urban design  city planning  cityscape  city parks  liveable cities  cities for people  parks  urban environment 
Source: massurban
I love these! If they integrated a bicycle rack into one end they would be amazing! Tiny parks are on a roll in San Francisco: Two dumpsters full of greenery, with four more to come, add a bit of nature to the streets of a paved-over downtown neighborhood. Some scoff, but others are willing to give the “parkmobiles” a go. Photo: Dave Vetrano takes a coffee break at a parkmobile in San Francisco’s South of Market district. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

I love these! If they integrated a bicycle rack into one end they would be amazing!

Tiny parks are on a roll in San Francisco: Two dumpsters full of greenery, with four more to come, add a bit of nature to the streets of a paved-over downtown neighborhood. Some scoff, but others are willing to give the “parkmobiles” a go.

Photo: Dave Vetrano takes a coffee break at a parkmobile in San Francisco’s South of Market district. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

(via rpgsa)

09/7/11

1,030 notes

urban planning  urbanism  urban design  public space  parks 
Source: Los Angeles Times
New York Times: Central Park Has 1,500 New Ways to Say Keep Off, or On, the Grass

Central Park gets a new look!

Central Park presented a new face this weekend to visitors who arrived as Tropical Storm Irene made its way up the coast:

Titling Gothic.

That is the typeface used on more than 1,500 new signs that have sprouted around the park this summer, as the Central Park Conservancy tries to stake an ever-stronger claim in the public’s eye to the 843 acres of parkland under its management.

The appearance of white Titling Gothic letters on a sprightly yellowish-green background is supposed to convey more of an informal than a dictatorial stance. Except, of course, when a tropical storm is coming.

“Park signs are traditionally prohibitive — a lot of ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that,’” said Douglas Blonsky, president of the Central Park Conservancy. “The primary purpose of our new signs is to help visitors have as rich an experience as possible in the park – we’re telling them: ‘Do this! Try this!’”

08/30/11

7 notes

New York  New York Times  parks  public space  urban design  urban planning  urbanism  way finding  font 
Reclaim your City - Park(ing) Day - Friday 17 September 2010

Urban Arterial Park(ing) Spot, sponsored by a bike and flower shop. Munich, 2009. Photo by ITDP-Europe. (Parkingday.org)

08/13/10
city life  city parks  cityscape  parks  public space  renewal  urban planning  vibrant  vitality 
After High Line’s Success, Other Cities Look Up - NY Times 15 July 2010 The High Line’s success as an elevated park, its improbable evolution from old trestle into glittering urban amenity, has motivated a whole host of public officials and city planners to consider or revisit efforts to convert relics from their own industrial pasts into potential economic engines.

After High Line’s Success, Other Cities Look Up - NY Times 15 July 2010

The High Line’s success as an elevated park, its improbable evolution from old trestle into glittering urban amenity, has motivated a whole host of public officials and city planners to consider or revisit efforts to convert relics from their own industrial pasts into potential economic engines.

07/15/10

6 notes

urban planning  urban design  urban development  green spaces  vitality  parks  city parks  cityscape  city  city planning 

Accent theme by Handsome Code

Liveable Cities | Communities | Urbanism | Cycling | Innovation | Collaboration | Culture

twitter.com/irishboyinldn

view archive



Ask me anything