14th street and union square preservation plan - Columbia ...

the West Side Highway that divides the Hudson River
Park and 14 th Street.
We propose to use design as a way to physically bridge
the Pier 56 area with the High Line. The addition of
a footbridge from the pier to the High Line would
encourage and increase pedestrian traffic and thus
increase the acknowledgement of this important historic
resource. Secondly, the pier’s history should be recognized
and interpreted in the redevelopment of the site. We
have created a design that interprets the pier as both
the unused place of the twentieth century by keeping it
as an archaeological ruin, and as the important thriving
pier of the late nineteenth century by the installation of
historic plaques (Figure 17). Our proposal intervenes in
a minimal way with the physical remains of the pier by
adding a pedestrian ramp on which informational panels
are located. The walk along the ramp in between the
panels reveals images and facts pertaining to the history
of the pier.
Increasing recognition of the intrinsic design value of
industrial sites, and the rich history they possess, has led
cities around the country, and even around the world, to
reclaim abandoned industrial sites for public parks. New
York City has demonstrated its willingness to reinvest in
its own industrial past with the High Line Park project,
and Pier 56 presents a natural extension of this effort.
Example: Union Square Park
Union Square is the most important and most highly used
open space on 14 th Street. Its long history, connected
with the development of the area, further emphasizes its
importance to the study area. However, its history—both
in the evolution of the park’s design and in the square’s
relationship to the labor movement and surrounding
buildings—has not been clearly expressed to the public.
Though the park’s plans have changed many times
throughout its 150 year history, the use has remained
generally the same within the park; it is the activity
THE PLAN: ENHANCING INTERPRETATION OF OPEN SPACES
and circulation patterns on the park’s perimeter that
have seen the most change. Historically, the northern
end of the park was used for public gatherings and
demonstrations; however since the renovation of the
south end in the 1980’s, and with the Greenmarket in
the north end, the stepped plaza has become the popular
spot for gatherings today.
After analysis of the current design, it was decided that
the design proposals would focus on four objectives:
first, that Union Square should be a place primarily
for people, not for cars; second, that the evolution of
the park’s designs need to be expressed to the public;
third, that the park connect to its building context and
concurrent labor history; and fourth, that the park have
a means of conveying its use as a political gathering
space, in the past, and for current and future use.
Objective 1: Circulation
In order to ease the circulation conflicts throughout
Union Square, the focus of the design should be the
movement of people throughout the square, not the
movement of automobile traffic on the street. Expanding
the park’s boundaries to the north and the east solves
many of the problems Union Square currently faces.
The expansion creates one-way streets at Union Square
East and 17 th Street, turning the streets around Union
Square into a traffic circle and allowing easier and safer
pedestrian crossings. The expansion allows more room
for people to move around the perimeter of the park
and also provides more space for the Greenmarket on
three sides of the park. If, historically, the park was the
only densely landscaped space in Union Square, new
proposals should maintain Olmsted’s intention that the
park be a place of repose and isolation in the middle of
the square.
Objective 2: Evolution of park designs
The formal plan of the design has evolved over the
park’s 150-year history but there is no evidence left of
18. PROPOSED MASTER PLAN FOR UNION SQUARE PARK.
its origins. To further public understanding of the park’s
history, it is important to illustrate the most significant
aspects of the previous designs while not disturbing the
current function of the park.
The proposal layers the 1872 network of paths that
radiate from the historic location of the fountain and
connects the 1872 paths to the current ones. Materials
for the 1872 paths will be similar to what might have
historically been used; grass cellular paving planted
throughout will visually distinguish the old from the new,
while maintaining the current use of the grassy areas for
sitting. The center will be re-established with a flat circle
of water, representative of the fountain installed for the
1842 Croton water celebration (Figure 18).
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