Grand Army Plaza Designs Unveiled
[nggallery id=”24321″ template=galleryview] Gothamist takes a look at the Reinventing Grand Army Plaza exhibit, which begins today. Two hundred entries were winnowed down to 30, and the Beep gave the official thumbs up to one of them at 11AM today (anybody hear the verdict?) After you see the exhibit, you can vote for your favorite…
[nggallery id=”24321″ template=galleryview]
Gothamist takes a look at the Reinventing Grand Army Plaza exhibit, which begins today. Two hundred entries were winnowed down to 30, and the Beep gave the official thumbs up to one of them at 11AM today (anybody hear the verdict?) After you see the exhibit, you can vote for your favorite of the 30, via text message or at their Web site. Winners will be announced October 8. In the meantime, which one you putting the money on? Check out Gothamist for a larger selection of entries.
Yo, I walk through GAP most days:
-We don’t need a Starbucks there; BYO. In fact, we don’t need any sellers to disturb the peace, or seldom used structures like a green market building. Brklyn has enough commercial space. We need peaceful green.
-We don’t need the traffic pushed to the edge streets, which just puts it into the neighborhood.
-Ditto for traffic underground; it would be a smelly, dark & dank drive (& sit), & put more cars into the side streets.
-Ped tunnels would soon smell like…same with all those concrete wall thingies.
-Please! no multi-level concrete monstrosities or such!
So…
-Clean up the outer berms, make them useful, but keep them high to reduce noise to the neighborhood.
-Get rid of the parking lot behind the arch.
-MAYBE a ped bridge or two, but not huge ones like in Curano Cor. Or just better traffic light coordination.
-Spend the money on schools & other needs, not for a jewel for RATner’s & Marty’s hats.
Keep it real, not eye candy for the recent rich folks.
GAP is now a huge waste of space. The wooded north end is unusable and dangerously blind. The tiny islands of arch and fountain are surrounded by cobble and blacktop and are otherwise featureless and wheelchair/stroller inaccessable. The traffic pattern wasn’t designed around aggro NYC drivers and pedestrian crossings are barely an after-thought.
Minimumly, there needs to be under/overpass access and landscaped paths around and linking the islands. Burying traffic can cost big, but understand how the Atlantic Yards will forever change the big picture in a few short years, it may be unavoidable to bypass traffic controlled intersections.
my $0.02
Just leave GAP alone. Its not hurting anyone, the artistic movement is foolish. GAP has been like that for years and to want to put pedestrian bridges is foolish. Leave well enough alone. We already have a gawdy glass building in the backdrop of the GAP now some art coalition wants free art space its a dumb idea. Leave the GAP alone. Also, if you do not know how to drive around the circle then you should not be driving.
In my only urban planning class at Pratt, I did a redesign of GAP, and realized that planning such an extensive redo is simply never going to happen.
The GAP plans on the website are beautiful and completely impractical, and, I would argue, serve a needed purpose to stimulate discussion. What’s needed is something simpler: reduce the traffic lanes and put in more stoplights for peds, even if leads to more congestion and delays (“congestion is good” should be the new mantra of traffic engineers). As mentioned above, put in a ped bridge from the north end and close off the market space/south loop to traffic permanently.
Having a reason to get there (aka food & drink) would help greatly. Serving food in non-disposable utensils (as they do in Europe in parks) will almost eliminate the clutter.
In re-reading this, I see why I decided against planning as a new career.
Inigo, statutorily the Art Commission will be involved in any physical changes to Grand Army Plaza.
I’m with Sam. This really is a waste of tax dollars.
Besides, now he’s got me craving a hotdog, fries and a shake.
I really like the idea of a shake shack in the park. I do not think we need a big re-do. An easier way to get into the park (with kids in tow) and a reason to go there (hot dogs and a chocolate shake) will do the trick for this American family. Don’t let the Art Commission near this please!
My two cents… I’ve heard that the traffic circle is “horrible” and comments like “i’m scared” or “i feel like it’s dangerous” etc.
I don’t feel this when I drive around GAP – regularly. It does need some tweaking and clearer signs etc. But that’s about it. The BIGGEST problem I see is not GAP – but Union Street. That 2 lane and VERY narrow street is the only direct route between GAP ad 4th Ave. It simply needs to be widened (i.e., parking removed). Even if it remains two lanes… that would make it better and safer for everyone.
Traffice moves fine around the circle, but drive from 5th ave up union to Eastern Pkwy. That is a very frustrating process — the “secret” route is to go on Berkeley and St. John’s. And guess what, GAP’s circls (plaza rd) is involved, and it works FINE.
I agree with many above – figuring out a simple way to connect the GAP with the park would be nice… a ped bridge would be an idea. Though, honestly, the new crosswalks and bike paths are pretty good.
Next step would be to “enliven” the square. Get stuff over there so there’s a reason to go there. Why can’t the green market be expanded over there? Why can’t there be a Christmas Market (a la Northern Europe) or other regular events. Things like that — of course, this might require some small adjustments, but not years of construction to build traffic tunnels and expensive things like that.
Neo grec, you are truly demented, you must be a professional goo-goo.