Activating park spaces

Casual Elegance
Originally uploaded by M.V. Jantzen

Note in the previous entry, I mentioned that I didn't include any books on park planning. Well, we should all read about Olmsted. And I am waiting for David Barth to codify his "City Revival" approach to parks planning into a textbook. I would be first in line to buy. Of course, the Trust for Public Land publishes many great reports and primers on the subject (and I missed Peter Harnik's recent presentation at the National Building Museum). The Project for Public Spaces has a report, Public Parks, Private Partners and there is this special issue of Places Journal.

And I realized with the urban design recommendations below that I forgot to mention Cy Paumier's Creating a Vibrant City Center.

MV Jantzen has a post at GGW about how instead of opening a Shake Shack in a building, our reality show fop Tom Collicchio ought to open one in a local park.

The problem is that the parks where this needs to happen are controlled by the National Park Service, which has policies antithetical to improving the quality of the public space.

PPS's experience with Bryant Park in NYC is classic.

You'd think after 30 years, that the experience of revitalizing that park might trickle down and influence the National Park Service.

Nope.

So we're stuck and F****** both.

Note that the photo of the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park is by MV Jantzen. Similarly, the Schenley Plaza Park in Pittsburgh is activated in this and other ways.


Schenley Park is in Pittsburgh's Oakland Cultural District, has a merry go round, cafe, movable tables and chairs, and opens out to the Carnegie Library. I was there in October so it was a bit chilly and less active when I took this photo.