IMPROBABLY, Brooklyn Bridge Park exists. That's not an outcome I would have bet on a couple of decades ago, when the waterfront below Brooklyn Heights was a DMZ of flat, hard wharves. Even more miraculously, the park is an 85-acre civic masterpiece. It spent the first half of its life as a sketch, even as its various parts revealed themselves. Finally, a long stretch of innumerable plans, trade-offs, objections, and delays-that whole impasto of New York dithering-has been overwhelmed by the vivid, sensual presence of one of the city's great public spaces. On a hot June afternoon, I watched children roll down a grassy incline and marveled at the huge effort of imagination that was needed to look at all that abandoned concrete and in its place conjure hills, dales, bowers, meadows, and wetlands. Credit for summoning them all into being goes largely to MVVA, a team of landscape architects led by Michael Van Valkenburgh.
He takes a proprietary interest in the project, prowling it often with park staff and keeping an active to-do list long after he cashed the final check for his services.
The obsessiveness is shared by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation's staff and made visible in the lack of litter, the working toilets, and the thick profusion of plants.
Bu hikaye New York magazine dergisinin July 1-14, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye New York magazine dergisinin July 1-14, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Trapped in Time
A woman relives the same day in a stunning Danish novel.
Polyphonic City
A SOFT, SHIMMERING beauty permeates the images of Mumbai that open Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light. For all the nighttime bustle on display-the heave of people, the constant activity and chaos-Kapadia shoots with a flair for the illusory.
Lear at the Fountain of Youth
Kenneth Branagh's production is nipped, tucked, and facile.
A Belfast Lad Goes Home
After playing some iconic Americans, Anthony Boyle is a beloved IRA commander in a riveting new series about the Troubles.
The Pluck of the Irish
Artists from the Indiana-size island continue to dominate popular culture. Online, they've gained a rep as the \"good Europeans.\"
Houston's on Houston
The Corner Store is like an upscale chain for downtown scene-chasers.
A Brownstone That's Pink Inside
Artist Vivian Reiss's Murray Hill house of whimsy.
These Jeans Made Me Gay
The Citizens of Humanity Horseshoe pants complete my queer style.
Manic, STONED, Throttle, No Brakes
Less than six months after her Gagosian sölu show, the artist JAMIAN JULIANO-VILLAND lost her gallery and all her money and was preparing for an exhibition with two the biggest living American artists.
WHO EVER THOUGHT THAT BRIGHT PINK MEAT THAT LASTS FOR WEEKS WAS A GOOD IDEA?
Deli Meat Is Rotten