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First Look at Liberty Park
The new Liberty Park opened yesterday at the southern edge of the World Trade Center, atop the Rudolph William Lewis Giuliani Bus Garage (I’ve declared it that and he’s not getting anything better). One can only be grateful for any new open area around here! But despite the claim in the New York Times that the park is a “gift to the community” for putting up with 15 years (and counting) of World Trade Center construction, Liberty Park, it seems to me, is really a boon for the workers in all the surrounding offices. Because until the 9/11 Memorial starts getting woven back into the city as an actual park—with garbage cans, seating, and so on—Liberty Park is one of the few spots in the area where you can sit outside. Hence, benches and more benches. The park’s second raison d’être is a thoroughfare between Battery Park City (including Brookfield Place) and points east of the World Trade Center that commuters can now use to avoid barging through the memorial.
Any new park is indeed a gift, but I’m still going to look it in the mouth. Let’s start our tour from the east, where you can go up a set of stairs or a long ramp.
There’s amphitheater-style seating on a mid-level, next to a garage vent and the under-construction Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox National Shrine, a.k.a. SaNiGrONaSh. Designed by Santiago Calatrava, it will add a much-needed focal point to the park.
Looking west across the park. For all of these photos, you can and should click on them to see them larger. In this case, you’ll get a great look at the crooked handrail.
Quality control is an issue.
Looking east toward the Sanigronash….
On one hand, the designers squeezed in a lot of seating without the park feeling like a waiting room. On the other hand, the benches and planters are a riot of acute angles. I was exploring with my friend Andrea, who said they reminded her of boats. “Angry boats,” I replied. “Extremely angry boats.” I know nothing about feng shui, but these shapes would seem to contradict traditional thinking in how you go about creating a relaxing space.
And then there are the spear-shaped poles for lighting and security cameras (to discourage birds, no doubt).
The emphasis on seating is laudable, but I would’ve preferred more vegetation. As it stands now, the park feels more like a plaza. Over time, as the landscaping fills out, the balance should improve. When you do comes across a green moment, it’s refreshing.
There’s a lack of consistency to the design, and in particular, the materials. As one example, the dark, rounded, stone staircase leading to West Street (below) is from an entirely different park than the light, airy, wooden one on the east. And as Andrea can tell you, best not to get me started on those hideous metal planters.
The Times said you get a great view of the 9/11 Memorial, which I would dispute. You can hear the water, though. And the full-length view of 1 World Trade Center is a delight. The building has grown on me.
Here’s the sculpture called America’s Response Monument in its new home. “Nice to see it out from behind a fence,” said Andrea. (She’s a glass-half-full kind of gal.) I still wonder why the area behind it is off-limits. Also, does anyone else think it’s strange that the benefactors who funded the sculpture are still anonymous? What if it was the Koch brothers? What if it was Martin Shkreli?
Last and possibly least, there’s the garden wall that much has been made of in the press. (You can see a bit of it in the photo above of the West Street stairway.) The wall runs along the northern side of the garage, so park visitors won’t actually see it. I imagine it’ll mainly benefit the people getting on and off the buses.
For me, the best part was actually the Liberty Street pedestrian bridge, so clean and fresh and new. The views up and down West Street are gorgeous; too bad they sloped the sills so that no one can sit there. At the west end of the bridge, you enter the 1980s—I mean, the octagonal pavilion north of 200 Liberty.
Let’s wind this up with a mystery…. Why does a rooftop park need a manhole?
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What I can’t understand is WHY, if the park is open, have they not cleared the 4 feet of sidewalk space on West Street fpr pedestrians? It interrupts EVERYTHING! This is ridiculous.
Wowza. So negative.
I suppose it was. If you put me in a new place, I’m going to think about it critically: what works, what doesn’t. Liberty Park may very well end up being a lovely place once the trees have grown and the church is built, but as it stands now, the emphasis is squarely on the very aggressive benches and planters, and compared to other recent parks, even ones with their own constraints (High Line, Hudson River Park), I find the entire space a bit disappointing. But of course a disappointing park is still preferable to almost any other use of the land.
All you need was a good coffee and a BM, apparently.
It looks like a skateboarder magnet. I hope they don’t back off on the police detail.
Overheard on my first visit there: (tourist to police, pointing to the wings of the transit hub): “what’s that monument over there?”
BTW I’m still calling it Highline South.
It does look like the High Line! Doesn’t look like it has an area for little kids to play though. =/ A mom can dream, right? =P
I think we have enough places in the area for kids to play in. It’s nice to have some places that don’t necessarily involve kids. (I’m a parent)
That was fast! There were three skateboarders there this afternoon, using the main ramp from the top already. When I mentioned this to the “police” guy he just stood there and smiled and didn’t move.
-1 for TribecaMom, +1 for lowphat’s first response, ~+1 for Cookie Milk because I think his heart is at least in the right place, + 1 for Erik’s review, -1 for wanting to name anything for Giuliani even facetiously.
It most definitely is a skateboarder’s magnet.
I wouldn’t put Giuliani’s name on anything considering he didn’t safeguard the city from 9/11. That’s right the WTC was attacked a year before he took office and what does he do? He builds a command center right next to it and doesn’t ask “What if someone tried to crash planes into the WTC?” then make sure we had the pair of fighter jets on call to make sure that never happens. Spare me “the cost” when two jets at Teterboro or wherever and the best pilots on call to fly them is a small price to pay to protect a city of eight million plus and counting and the economic capital of the country and world.
If Republicans like him want to blame Hillary Clinton for Benghazi then I will blame Giuliani, Bush II, and the GOP for 9/11 (and the THIRTEEN attacks on U.S. embassies which killed 60 people under GWB’s reign – where’s the investigation into that from the KD Lang/Howdy Doody haired Trey Gowdy – Howdy Gowdy.)
Your mother must have forgotten to give you the Ritalin this morning.