Central Park, Samode

History

Planning

Between 1821 and 1855, New York City nearly quadrupled in population. As the city expanded northward up Manhattan Island, people were drawn to the few existing open spaces, mainly cemeteries, for passive recreation. These were seen as escapes from the noise and chaotic life in the city, which at the time was composed mostly of Lower Manhattan. The Commissioners' Plan of 1811, the outline for Manhattan's modern street grid, included several smaller open spaces but not Central Park. As such, John Randel Jr. had surveyed the grounds for the construction of intersections within the modern-day park site. The only remaining surveying bolt from his survey is embedded in a rock located north of the present Dairy and the 66th Street transverse, marking the location where West 65th Street would have intersected Sixth Avenue.

Construction

Multiple people were involved in creating the final design of Central Park. While Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux were the primary designers, they were assisted by board member Andrew Haswell Green, as well as architect Jacob Wrey Mould, master gardener Ignaz Anton Pilat, and engineer George E. Waring, Jr.. Olmsted was responsible for the overall plan, while Vaux designed some of the finer details. Mould, who frequently worked with Vaux, designed the Central Park Esplanade and the Tavern on the Green restaurant building. Pilat was the chief landscape architect for Central Park, and was primarily responsible with the import and placement of plants within the park. A "corps" of construction engineers and foremen, managed by superintending engineer William H. Grant, were tasked with the measuring and constructing architectural features such as paths, roads, and buildings. Waring was one of the engineers working under Grant's leadership, and was in charge of land drainage.Central Park was difficult to construct because of the generally rocky and swampy landscape. Around 5 million cubic feet (140,000 m3) of soil and rocks had to be transported out of the park, and more gunpowder was used to clear the area than was used at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. More than 18,500 cubic yards (14,100 m3) of topsoil were transported from Long Island and New Jersey, because the original soil was neither fertile nor sufficiently substantial to sustain the flora specified in the Greensward Plan. Modern steam-powered equipment and custom tree-moving machines augmented the work of unskilled laborers. In total, over 20,000 individuals helped construct Central Park. Because of extreme precautions taken to minimize collateral damage, only five laborers died during the entire construction process.During the development of Central Park, superintendent Olmsted hired several dozen mounted police officers, which were referred to as "keepers". There were two classes: park keepers and gate keepers. The mounted police were viewed favorably by park patrons, and were later incorporated into a permanent patrol. However, the regulations themselves were sometimes strict. For instance, prohibited actions included games of chance, speech-making, large congregations such as picnics, or picking flowers or other parts of plants. However, these ordinances were effective: by 1866, there had been nearly eight million visits and only 110 arrests in the park's history.

Late 19th and early 20th centuries: first decline

By the 1870s, the park's patronage increasingly came to include the middle and working class, and strict regulations were gradually eased, such as those against public gatherings. Because of the heightened visitor count, neglect from the Tammany administration, and budget cuts demanded by taxpayers, the maintenance expense for Central Park had reached a nadir by 1879. Olmsted blamed politicians, real estate owners and park workers for Central Park's decline, though the high maintenance expense was also a factor in the decline. By the 1890s, the park faced several new challenges: cars were becoming commonplace, and people were beginning to see the park as a recreational attraction, with the proliferation of amusements and refreshment stands. The 1904 opening of the New York City Subway displaced Central Park as the city's predominant leisure destination, as New Yorkers could travel to further-away destinations such as Coney Island beaches or Broadway theaters for a five-cent fare.The late 19th century saw the appointment of landscape architect Samuel Parsons to the position of New York City parks superintendent. Parsons, an onetime apprentice of Calvert Vaux, helped restore the nurseries of Central Park in 1886. Parsons closely followed Olmsted's original vision for the park, restoring Central Park's trees while blocking the placement of several large statues in the park. Under Parsons's leadership, two circles (now Duke Ellington and Frederick Douglass Circles) were constructed at the northern corners of the park. He was removed in May 1911 following a lengthy dispute over whether an expense to resoil the park was unnecessary. A succession of Tammany-affiliated Democratic mayors were indifferent toward Central Park. Several park advocacy groups were formed in the early 20th century. The citywide Parks and Playground Association, as well as a consortium of multiple Central Park civic groups operating under the Parks Conservation Association, were formed in the 1900s and 1910s to preserve the park's character. The associations advocated against such changes as the construction of a library, a sports stadium, a cultural center, and an underground parking lot in Central Park. A third group, the Central Park Association, was created in 1926. The Central Park Association and the Parks and Playgrounds Association were merged into the Park Association of New York City two years later.The Heckscher Playground—named after philanthropist August Heckscher, who donated the play equipment—opened near the southern end of Central Park in 1926, and quickly became popular with poor immigrant families. The following year, mayor Walker commissioned Herman W. Merkel, a landscape designer to create a plan to improve Central Park. Merkel's plans would combat vandalism and plant destruction, as well as rehabilitate paths and add eight new playgrounds, at a cost of $1 million. One of the suggested modifications, underground irrigation pipes, was installed soon after Merkel's report was submitted. The other improvements outlined in the report, such as fences to mitigate plant destruction, were postponed due to the Great Depression.

1930s to 1950s: Moses rehabilitation

In 1934, Republican Fiorello La Guardia was elected mayor of New York City, and he unified the five park-related departments then in existence. Newly appointed city parks commissioner Robert Moses was given the task of cleaning up the park, and he summarily fired many of the Tammany-era staff. At the time, the lawns were filled with weeds and dust patches, while many trees were dying or already dead. Monuments had been vandalized, equipment and walkways were broken, and ironwork was rusted. Moses biographer Robert Caro later said, "The once beautiful Mall looked like a scene of a wild party the morning after. Benches lay on their backs, their legs jabbing at the sky..."During the following year, the city's parks department replanted lawns and flowers, replaced dead trees and bushes, sandblasted walls, repaired roads and bridges, and restored statues. The park menagerie and Arsenal was transformed into the modern Central Park Zoo, and a rat extermination program was instituted within the zoo. Another dramatic change was Moses's removal of the "Hoover valley" shantytown at the north end of Turtle Pond, which became the 30-acre (12 ha) Great Lawn. The western part of the Pond at the park's southeast corner became an ice skating rink called Wollman Rink, roads were improved or widened, and twenty-one playgrounds were added. These projects were paid for using funds from the New Deal program, as well as donations from the public. To make way for the Tavern on the Green restaurant, Moses evicted the sheep from Sheep Meadow.The 1940s and 1950s saw additional renovations, among them a restoration of the Harlem Meer completed in 1943, as well as a new boathouse completed in 1954. Moses also started constructing several other recreational features in Central Park, such as playgrounds and ballfields. One of the more controversial projects proposed during this time was a 1956 dispute over a parking lot for Tavern in the Green. The controversy placed Moses, an urban planner known for displacing families for other large projects around the city, against a group of mothers who frequented a wooded hollow at the site of a parking lot. Despite opposition from the parents, Moses approved the destruction of part of the hollow. Demolition work commenced after Central Park was closed for the night, and was only halted after a threat of a lawsuit.

1960s and 1970s: "Events Era" and second decline

Moses left his position in May 1960. No park commissioner since Moses was able to exercise the same degree of power, nor did NYC Parks remain in as stable a position in the aftermath of his departure, with eight commissioners holding the office in the twenty years following. The city was experiencing economic and social changes, with some residents leaving the city and moving to the suburbs. Interest in the landscape of Central Park had long since declined, and the park was now mostly being used for recreation. Several unrealized additions were proposed for Central Park in that decade, such as a public housing development, a golf course, and a "revolving world's fair".The 1960s also marked the beginning of an "Events Era" in Central Park that reflected the widespread cultural and political trends of the period. The Public Theater's annual Shakespeare in the Park festival was settled in the Delacorte Theater, and summer performances were instituted on the Sheep Meadow and the Great Lawn by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera. During the late 1960s, the park became the venue for rallies and cultural events such as the "love-ins" and "be-ins" of the period. The same year, Lasker Rink opened in the northern part of the park; the facility served as an ice rink in winter and Central Park's only swimming pool in summer.By the mid-1970s, however, managerial neglect was taking a toll on the park's condition. A 1973 report noted that the park suffered from severe erosion and tree decay, and that individual structures were being vandalized or neglected. The Central Park Community Fund was subsequently created based on the recommendation of a report from a Columbia University professor. The Fund then commissioned a study of the park's management and suggested the appointment of both a NYC Parks administrator and a board of citizens. In 1979, Parks Commissioner Gordon Davis established the Office of Central Park Administrator and appointed Elizabeth Barlow, the executive director of the Central Park Task Force, to the position. The Central Park Conservancy, a nonprofit organization with a citizen board, was founded the following year.

1970s to 2000s: restoration

Under the leadership of the Central Park Conservancy, the park's reclamation began by addressing needs that could not be met within NYC Parks' existing resources. The Conservancy hired interns and a small restoration staff to reconstruct and repair unique rustic features, undertaking horticultural projects, and removing graffiti under the broken windows theory, which advocated removing visible signs of decay. The first structure to be renovated was the Dairy, which reopened as the park's first visitor center in 1979. The Sheep Meadow, which reopened the following year, was the first landscape to be restored. Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, the USS Maine National Monument, and the Bow Bridge were also rehabilitated. By then, the Conservancy was engaged in design efforts and long-term restoration planning, and in 1981, Davis and Barlow announced a 10-year, $100 million "Central Park Management and Restoration Plan". The long-closed Belvedere Castle was renovated and reopened in 1983, and the Central Park Zoo was closed for a total reconstruction the same year. In an effort to reduce the maintenance effort for Central Park, certain large gatherings such as free concerts were banned within Central Park.On completion of the planning stage in 1985, the Conservancy launched its first capital campaign and mapped out a 15-year restoration plan. Over the next several years, the campaign restored landmarks in the southern part of the park, such as Grand Army Plaza and the police station at the 86th Street transverse; while Conservatory Garden in the northern part of the park was restored to a design by Lynden B. Miller. Real estate developer Donald Trump renovated the Wollman Rink in 1987 after plans to renovate the rink were repeatedly delayed. The following year, the Zoo reopened after a $35 million, four-year renovation.Improvements to the northern end of the park began in 1989. A $51 million capital campaign, announced in 1993, resulted in the restoration of bridle trails, the Mall, the Harlem Meer, and the North Woods, as well as the construction of the Dana Discovery Center on the Harlem Meer. This was followed by the Conservancy's overhaul of the 55 acres (22 hectares) near the Great Lawn and Turtle Pond, which was completed in 1997. During the mid-1990s, the Conservancy hired additional volunteers and implemented a zone-based system of management throughout the park. The Conservancy assumed much of the park's operations in early 1998.Renovations continued through the first decade of the 21st century, and a project to restore the Pond was commenced in 2000. Four years later, the Conservancy replaced a chain-link fence with a replica of the original cast-iron fence that surrounded the Reservoir. In addition, it started refurbishing the ceiling tiles of the Bethesda Arcade, which was completed in 2007. Soon after, the Central Park Conservancy started restoring the Ramble and Lake, in a project that was completed in 2012. Bank Rock Bridge was restored, and the Gill, which empties into the lake, was reconstructed to approximate its dramatic original form. The final feature to be restored was the East Meadow, which was rehabilitated in 2011.

2010s to present

Legislation was proposed in October 2014 to conduct a study to make the park car-free during the following summer. In 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the permanent closure of West and East Drives north of 72nd Street to vehicular traffic as it was proven that closing the roads did not adversely impact traffic. Subsequently, in June 2018, the remaining drives south of 72nd Street were closed to vehicular traffic.Several renovation projects continued through the park in the late 2010s. Belvedere Castle was closed in 2018 for an extensive renovation, reopening in June 2019. Later in 2018, it was announced that the Delacorte Theater would also be closed from 2020 to 2022 for a $110 million rebuild. The Central Park Conservancy also announced that Lasker Rink would be closed for a $150 million renovation between 2021 and 2024.