A real life example of layering

Bryant Park Reading Room, Flickr photo by jbparker, reprinted with permission.

His description:

Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan is co-located with the main New York Public Library building. The NYPL sponsors a "reading room" area in the park with stands of books for your lunch hour reading pleasure. Click here for a larger photo.

Isn't this awesome? Talk about leveraging public assets! This is exactly what PPS means when they use the term "layering." It's what should happen with Eastern Market Metro Plaza, which is faced by the Southeast Branch of the DC Public Library. Imagine if the Metro Plaza and the library were "linked" in a similar fashion. (We proposed this as part of the PPS quick and dirty workshop a few years ago that used the Eastern Market Metro Plaza as a test bed. See this past blog entry: Opportunity in adversity -- Eastern Market, DC.

For more on layering: Pride of Place: Fred Kent and the Project for Public Spaces (from Governing Magazine.)