Required Reading

Although Dan Biederman and Bryant Park Corporation staff are responsible for the renovation and rebirth of the park into one of the world's most popular public spaces, we'll admit, not all our ideas and management techniques are original. Part of our success is due to the work of remarkable authors, and we're happy to share our favorite books with you in the newest section of our online shop, the Bryant Park Library.

Take, for example, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces and City: Rediscovering the Center, staples on the reading list of any urban planning course and two of the most valuable tomes for managers of public spaces.

Author William "Holly" Whyte was a pioneer in observing the social behavior of people in public spaces and served as a mentor to Dan Biederman in the early days of Bryant Park's renaissance.

Whyte was also an early proponent of providing movable chairs for visitors to public spaces, and the inspiration for our now iconic bistro furniture (coincidentally, you can also purchase vintage chairs from the Bryant Park Shop).

Check out the Bryant Park Library for the rest of our required reading.

A Walk in the Park with Dan Biederman

When we started this blog in 2009, one of our goals was to bring you face to face with some of the park's talented managers. And we figured, why not start at the top?

Meet Dan Biederman, President of the Bryant Park Corporation, the man responsible for reclaiming the park from vagrants and drug dealers in the 1980s and instituting management techniques that turned the park into the thriving public space you visit today. (Read more about Dan here)

We tagged along on one of Dan's regular walks through the park and, inspired by its spring transformation, asked him for an overview on the maintenance and management of the lawn.




Watch more videos from the park on our YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/BryantParkNYC 

Fencing's in the Forecast Next Week

It was our most popular new program last year and next Wednesday, April 6, Bryant Park Fencing will return to the Fifth Avenue Terrace. Against the dramatic backdrop of the New York Public Library, experts from the Manhattan Fencing Center will conduct free lessons for students of all ages and abilities.

No prior experience is necessary and all equipment is provided for you. Space is limited, so we recommend you call 212-382-2255 to register ahead of time.

Bryant Park Fencing 
Wednesdays, 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Spring sessions: April 6 – June 22
Fall sessions: September 7 – October 12
Fifth Avenue Terrace at 41st Street

Bryant Park in Our Own Words

Broadcastr screenshot

We've written about our participation on Broadcastr, a new site for location-based audio, and recently added a slew of insider stories about the park. See all those blue tags on the Bryant Park map up there? Each one is an audio file that gives you a behind the scenes story of the park, or an audio clip taken on location beneath the London Planes.

Bryant Park Corporation's staff members have a wealth of knowledge about the history and hidden details of the space -- it would be a shame to keep all those stories inside the walls of our office! In some of our newest audio additions...

...Bryant Park's Vice President of Business Services, Jerome Barth, explains why more chairs don't get stolen from the park...and how many actually do (Don't Steal the Chairs!)...

...Anne Kumer, the park's Archivist and writer of the blog series From the Archive, recounts the park's history as a potter's field (Bryant Park as a Burial Ground)...

...and Don Bussolini, the longest standing member of our Capital Projects Department, reveals what you probably never knew you were sitting on top of while taking a long lunch on the grass (Under the Lawn).

Tip: if you have trouble accessing our stories from the links above, take a few seconds to create a free account and try the links again. Once you have an account you'll also be able to rate your favorite audio clips and record your own stories.

Ping Pong & Pétanque Premieres: April 4

We're dusting off the ol' boules and paddles because come April 4, two of the park's beloved activities will be officially staffed and open to the public to play for free.

Bryant Park Ping Pong
Daily, 11:00am – 7:00pm
April 4 – September 30
The Tables, 42nd Street & 6th Avenue

Bryant Park Pétanque
Weekdays, 11:00am – 7:00pm
April 4 – October 14
Pétanque Court, 42nd Street & 6th Avenue

Another Sign of Spring

Reading Room book carts being set up in preparation for the official opening day on April 1.

Insider tip: we'll have an attendant out there on warmer weather days before the official opening. Check the forecast, then come by to get your read on.

New Spectator Sport: Bryant Park Capital Projects

Repaving the Upper Terrace...with an audience

The work being done by our Capital Projects Department throughout the park has developed quite an audience these days.

A number of construction-related projects are in progress (with a few more in the pipeline) to prepare for the park's busy warm weather season, including digging conduits to run power across the Upper Terrace (near the Bryant Park Grill) and re-paving the section since the bluestone had been damaged from events and heavy foot traffic.

The new power runs will benefit the Capital Department's lighting upgrade for the entire park by connecting the Upper Terrace light poles to the rest of our lighting system (Upper Terrace lights are currently controlled from inside the restaurant). In later months, new lights will be added to the area to enhance the Gertrude Stein and William Cullen Bryant monuments. We'll keep you updated. 

As for this new spectator sport, you might want to give it a try. It is pretty interesting to watch three men and a crane place 1,500 pound slabs of bluestone down like puzzle pieces.

Repaving the Upper Terrace: March 22, 2011

Watching the lawn work: March 22, 2011

And the lawn, the crown jewel of Bryant Park, always has an audience no matter what stage of installation it's in. I wonder if all the people watching the work are just imagining a beautiful sea of green in its place?

Bryant Park's Spring Flowers

The daffodils are here!

Ivy bed at 42nd Street & Sixth Avenue

The bright yellow flowers made their debut over the weekend, blooming in areas of the park that tend to get the most sunlight, primarily the Sixth Avenue and 42nd Street sides.

Today, the park bustled with activity as our horticulture team began planting the spring flower display. We received a large delivery of plants this morning that included purple pansies, pieris japonica, more yellow daffodils, and tulips for our planters.

You'll see groups of potted flowers staged throughout the park as the staff makes their way through all the areas that need planting. The new flowers already add a welcome dose of color to the park...we can't wait to see the rest in bloom!

Typical spring planter in Bryant Park (you can buy pieris japonica, center, at the Bryant Park Shop)

Plant and soil delivery, 40th Street

Brian moving plants across the park

Pansies staged for planting on the Upper Terrace

Check out these posts to follow the park's transition from winter to spring:

• Farewell Citi Pond
• Pond Load Out Progress
• Pond Load Out Complete 
• Lawn Improvements in Progress

Order Your Vintage Bryant Park Chair

Straight from the park to your home, a Vintage Bryant Park Chair is the perfect patio* accessory now that spring has officially sprung...well, sort of. But when those gorgeous warm days are here for good, don't you want to be ready?

 Order yours today at the Bryant Park Shop - shop.bryantpark.org


* Vintage Bryant Park Chairs are suitable for a variety of indoor and outdoor locations, including but not limited to, patios, rooftops, balconies, lawns, front porches, breakfast nooks...

Friday Favorites from the Flickr Pool

Thinking of spring

Bryant Park by Adilson Faltz

Untitled by youngsol

Meet me at the Park by jsrice00

Geometrie @ Bryant Park by LeLa

Got a great shot of the park? Share it with us at www.flickr.com/groups/bryantparknyc

Lawn Improvements in Progress

Bryant Park Lawn: March 16, 2011

Lawn work began last Wednesday and is now in full swing in the center of the park. All that digging you see is part of the process to improve the lawn's drainage system in advance of a busy summer. We hope to eliminate muddy patches that develop in "problem areas" of the lawn throughout the season.

Before the new sod can be laid, we will also be removing a 20-inch-deep layer of soil from the entire area, and replenishing it with "clean" soil. Clean soil grows stronger roots, stronger roots grow stronger grass, and stronger grass lasts longer, so you can enjoy the lawn well into September.

And more signs of spring you'll spot around the park these days: people relaxing, and daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths growing in the gardens.

Lawn: March 16, 2011

Fountain Terrace: March 16, 2011

Sixth Avenue Gardens: March 16, 2011

Check out these posts to follow the park's transition from winter to spring:

• Farewell Citi Pond
• Pond Load Out Progress
• Pond Load Out Complete

Reading Room Opens April 1

April 1 is right around the corner and with it comes the opening of the Bryant Park Reading Room.

As always, you'll be able to kick back in the park with a wide selection of books, magazines, and newspapers to read, completely free of charge. The Reading Room is open every day from 11am to 7pm, weather permitting.

Our 2011 Word for Word schedule has yet to be released, but you can get revved up for this season's visits from authors, poets, and more, by watching last year's highlight videos on our YouTube Channel.

Listen to the Latest from Bryant Park on Broadcastr

We've updated the official BryantParkNYC playlist on Broadcastr with original recordings taken during last summer's Word for Word Poetry series at the Reading Room.

Find them under the Featured Tab, or search for Bryant Park.

You'll hear Sandra Beasley, Patricia Smith, and poetry legend James Tate reading their poems and talking about the writing process.


And we knew it wouldn't take long for the lawn to be tagged with a war story from our summer film festival. Check out the aptly titled Running of the Blankets from Clayton Early of the Harvard Sailing Team sketch comedy group.

Now, why not add your own Bryant Park story? For listening and recording on to go, head over to iTunes for the free Broadcastr App.

From the Archives: A Gothic High-Rise Overlooks Bryant Park

In this post, BPC's archivist, Anne Kumer, shares some history. This post also appears on NYC Circa, a history blog about New York City and its public spaces.

Recently, there was an internal shift in the offices of Bryant Park Corporation HQ. I went from sitting in an open area, sort of a combo - cubicle/bullpen setting, to a room with four walls, a door, and two windows that actually open (rare for a midtown office building).  Being able to somewhat control light and temperature levels and tell when it's dark outside is very nice. Like many working archivists, most of my former jobs took place in dreary basement-level rooms with poor air circulation (great when you are sorting through 30 year-old Thermofaxes layered in dust, or rotting photographs reeking of developing fixer solution) and no natural light. Now, I look out the window and see this building.

Photo: A. Kumer

Photo: A. Kumer

The World's Tower, at 110 West 40th Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, has 30 above-ground levels, and a glazed terra cotta facade. When this Neo-Gothic building was completed in 1913, it was the tallest of its kind, on an extremely narrow, 50 foot-wide footprint, and made a striking impression in mid-town Manhattan.


Photo: MCNY, ca. 1915

The architecture firm, Buchman & Fox, was commissioned by budding real estate magnate Edward W. Browning. According to New York Times Streetscapes columnist Christopher Gray, Browning was eccentric, throughout his life, steadily acquiring adoptive daughters (and marrying one), as well as skinny mid-block high-rises. You can also see part of the Empire (Eltinge) theater in the bottom right, with Billie Burke (later to play Glinda the Good Witch of the North in The Wizard of Oz) on the marquee.


Photo: BPC Collection

Behold, midtown, more or less as we know it now. The above photograph, taken in 1935, and looking south-west above and across Bryant Park, shows numerous high-rise buildings surrounding the Tower. The Union Dime Savings Bank building is in the lower right of the above photograph, and Bryant Park is just west, outside the bottom frame of the photograph.

Pond Load Out Complete

By Monday, March 7, you could hardly tell there was a fully operational ice rink in the park no more than a week before. Only materials from Celsius and various equipment remained in the lawn area.

Day 8 of Pond load out: March 7, 2011

Soil preparations begin: March 9, 2011

Now, the lawn and gravel areas are completely clear and the soil is ready to be prepped for this year's lawn installation. The process will take approximately four weeks, as crews remove and replace a layer of soil, 20 inches deep, over the entire lawn area.

They will also make improvements to the lawn's drainage system and install conduits across the lawn (below ground) in preparation for a new power distribution system we are installing in the park for use by the ice rink and other major events.

We hope that the irrigation plan, combined with the new soil and *fingers crossed* a summer of ideal weather conditions, will give us our best and most durable lawn yet.

Below, you'll find another shot of the lawn area, from the ground, and a welcome sign of spring -- green sprouts of daffodils popping up in the ivy beds and gardens throughout the park!

Lawn: March 9, 2011

42nd Street Allee: March 9, 2011

Northeast corner of the park: March 9, 2011

Check out these posts to follow the park's transition from winter to spring:

• Farewell Citi Pond
• Pond Load Out Progress

What's the Story, Morning Glory?

Today's DVD release of Morning Glory has us reminiscing on the summer of 2009, when members of the movie's cast and crew spent a few days in June, July, and August filming scenes in Bryant Park. (Read on without fear, there are no spoilers in this post!)

The movie stars Rachel McAdams as the producer of morning news show, Daybreak, and Harrison Ford as the show's reluctant co-anchor. You can watch the official trailer here. Morning Glory's location scouts wanted to create an authentic New York City work environment, and chose the Grace Building for the headquarters of the film's fictional TV station, "IBS".

And where do authentic Grace Building office workers spend their lunch breaks? Bryant Park, of course!

We were delighted to watch the movie and see that the scenes shot in Bryant Park didn't end up on the cutting room floor. Here are a few behind-the-scenes shots we took during the filming in 2009:

Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, and crew prepping for a scene on the Upper Terrace

Harrison and Rachel filming on the Upper Terrace

Art imitates life for Harrison Ford...posing with a fictional fan in the movie

Prop bus parked on 42nd Street

Our neighbor, the Grace Building, dressed up as IBS headquarters

Rachel and Gertrude

Blog Posts to Your Inbox

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Everyone's busy these days, so we wanted to make it as easy as possible for you to read the Bryant Park Blog.

See that new box in the sidebar on the right? ----->

Enter your email address and hit 'subscribe' to start having our blog posts delivered straight to your email. You'll be able to catch up with the park from your desk or on the go.


And since we're on the topic of subscribing, if you want to hear more from us, including weekly event listings or our company newsletter, click here to sign up and have them delivered to your inbox, too.

Pond Load Out Progress

Recent sunny days have drawn more visitors to eat and relax in the park, despite the persisting winter temperatures. If you've been watching the load out of Citi Pond from the ground or your office windows, you're probably up to date on the progress of the crews hard at work in the park. If not, take a look at this photo update from the past two days:

Day 4: March 3, 2011

Day 5: March 4, 2010

The deck surrounding the rink has mostly been dismantled and the Pond skating pavilion disappeared from one day to the next. The skeleton of Celsius remains in the northeast corner of the lawn area, which in a few weeks will become a lawn once more!

Check out these posts to follow the park's transition from winter to spring

• Last Weekend to Skate & Dine Rinkside at Bryant Park
• Farewell Citi Pond

From the Archives: Tunnels Under Bryant Park, Part 2

In this post, BPC's archivist, Anne Kumer, shares some history. This is a follow-up post to Tunnels Under Bryant park, Part 1, which recalled the beginnings of the underground train system, including the first IRT line, and the 6th Avenue line. This post also appears on NYC Circa, a history blog about New York City and its public spaces.

During its long tenure as a public park -- 165 years, if you go all the way back to 1846, when the City ordered construction of a public park, then called Reservoir Square, next to the Croton Reservoir -- Bryant Park has seen a lot of construction. 

In addition to the erection of a temporary structure now and then, usually for a public event or activity, such as the Crystal Palace in 1853, and Federal Hall in 1932, and more recently, the Citi Pond at Bryant Park, there have also been two large-scale reconstructive efforts: one in 1934 under the guidance of Robert Moses, which transformed the park from a Victorian to a French Classical design, and another in 1988, headed by Bryant Park Corporation, which in addition to giving the park a much needed facelift, included the installation of  NYPL stacks under the lawn. 


Photo: NYC Transit Museum

 
The photo above, taken in 1924, shows a pedestrian view of 42nd street, on the north side of the park, during construction of the Flushing Line, now, the 7 train. Service began from Grand Central Terminal to Vernon-Jackson in Queens, on June 13, 1915. Over the next 13 years, the line extended to Flushing, Queens, and to Times Square. You can read more about it here, and of course, check out the more specific up-to-date 7 train line information here.


Running along 42nd Street, building the line turned much of the park into a construction site for about five years. 

Photo: BPC Photo Collection



Years later, while writing about the 1934 renovation of the park in the December 1, 1934 issue of the New Yorker, Lewis Mumford would recall " . . .those long dreary years, when it looked as if someone had struck oil there." Construction crews arrived in the park on June 2, 1922, and didn't leave until July 5, 1927. 



Bryant Park on Broadcastr

We're happy to featured on Broadcastr, a brand new social media platform for location-based audio! The nuts and bolts of Broadcastr are that people (like us, and you!) can easily create and share audio recordings that are tagged to locations on a map.

Look for our official playlist in the Featured Tab, or search for Bryant Park NYC. Right now you'll find recordings from Matthew Broderick (who happens to be a big fan of the park!) walking you through popular spots like the Reading Room and Fountain Terrace.

Stay tuned, because we'll be adding insider audio clips from park managers and employees, most notably, the people who have been with Bryant Park Corporation from the very beginning.

In a couple of weeks, Broadcastr will launch their mobile apps for iPhones and Androids, making it possible to record stories and sound bites on the go. You'll also be able to walk through the park and hear our stories stream automatically into your headphones, based on your physical location.

We look forward to hearing your stories about the park...make sure to tag them with #BryantParkNYC!

Check out Broadcastr at beta.broadcastr.com and the site's recent coverage in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Farewell Citi Pond

The dismantling of Citi Pond, 'load out' as we call it in events-speak, is underway in the park. When the season's last skaters reluctantly left the rink at 10pm on Sunday evening, the Pond crew turned on the boilers and the ice began to melt.

It's a bittersweet time in the park. Over the next eight days, the symbols of our winter season will disappear, but it means we are that much closer to a beautiful spring in the park. It's no easy feat to remove an entire winter playground in little more than a week, but the Pond crews work tirelessly, day and night, to stay on schedule so the park's lawn work can begin.

From our perch on Sixth Avenue, we have a perfect view of the load out progress:

Day 1: February 28, 2011

Day 2: March 1, 2011

Of course, our lawn is always at the mercy of the weather, but with a meticulously planned schedule that includes Pond load out, soil prep, and sod installation, we aim to have the lawn open to the public on or around May 1.