The Need for Public Spaces
Lars Stenberg (Communication)
“It is not the mosque or the church, not the synagogue or the
temple that is our common ground. Today our common ground is
the common ground.”
Luis
Garden Acosta, President, El Puente, speaking at the Great Parks Great
Cities conference New York 2003.
On September 11th 2001, as the second World Trade Center tower collapsed,
New Yorkers from The Bronx to Brooklyn Heights left their television
sets and headed out into the streets. Watching such an event unfold
alone was unbearable. What they sought in the streets, the parks and
the plazas was not an escape from the events. It wasn’t tranquillity,
nor the chance to get close to nature. They sought the company of fellow
human
beings,
the comfort
of people – strangers - going through the same emotions, sharing
the ‘intimate anonymity’ of public space.
Intellectually,
many of us talk of a city being defined not by its buildings but by its
public spaces. To live in New York after 911, and to work
with people who are rebuilding Lower Manhattan is to experience
proof of this belief on a far more visceral level.
From Tien-an Men Square
in Beijing to Union Square in New York; Hyde Park in London to Wenceslas
Square in Prague, public urban space is where
world-changing events happen. The catalysts for these events may be shaped
in anonymous government offices or in training
camps deep in the mountains, but public spaces are the stages on which
these events are played out. They are gauges of public opinion; they
are indicators of economic performance.
At a time when our experience
of the world is shaped largely by our viewing preferences; when these
preferences are becoming ever more individual, tailored and unshared,
it is oddly comforting
to know that there are some events we still need
to share with other people. An event such as 911 exposes the meanness
of a life experienced through the media. And yet the media is a pervasive
and persuasive deliverer of experience. We need compelling, usable public
urban space more now than ever before precisely because, for
most of the time, we don’t believe we do.
New Yorkers have always been
proud of their city. Post 911, they are, if anything, even prouder. This
new pride feels different though. It
is pride tempered with humanity - a slight tang of vulnerability that
wasn’t there before – and it’s all the better for it.
Many New Yorkers have realised the importance of creating public space.
It’s where they came together and – many for the first time – felt
part of a community.
The same surge of pride was experienced in Manchester
in June 1996 after a 3000 pound IRA bomb was detonated in the busy
retail centre of the
city. Within a few weeks a plan was drawn up to rebuild the centre
of Manchester, minimising the economic impact of the damage, and taking
the opportunity to right some of the mistakes made in the 1960's and
1970's. The plans included pedestrianization, a "major public space"
(Exchange Square), and the planting of 240
trees
in the
surrounding
streets.
The original Libeskind design for the World Trade Center site,
as displayed in the winter gardens adjacent to Ground Zero, centres on
a broad lawn.
A public green space – a place to reflect and to celebrate - surrounded
by monumental expressionist towers.
It seems that this design is under
threat from controlling interests: the proposal to add a fifth
tower would dramatically reduce
the amount of public space in favour of more offices. It remains to be
seen how the final design evolves. We shouldn’t be surprised if,
as the memory of the events and experiences of 911 fades, so the provision
of public space at the new development dwindles accordingly.
Aside from
the newsworthy Liebeskind WTC design, there are many more initiatives
throughout New York, and many in Lower Manhattan, kick-started
by the attack. The plans for Lower Manhattan include the redevelopment
of existing pubic spaces, and the creation of new ones – an apron
park running from Hudson River Park through the Battery past Canal Street
and connecting to East River Park for example – are all part of
a plan to create a 24 hour community in Lower Manhattan.
We shouldn’t
need an event like the attack on the World Trade Center or the Manchester
bomb to make us examine our cities’ needs for
livable public space. We should be able to learn from those cities’ experiences.
It is often said that New York is a city built on greed. If New York’s
business moguls can take time to look down from their office
towers and consider the quality and importance of their public space
provision, then surely we all can.
See also
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