Bryant Park Research Articles

Experimentation on Human Beings

Experimentation on Human Beings

Street Smut: Gender, Media, and the Legal Power Dynamics of Street Harassment, or Hey Sexy and Other Verbal Ejaculations

stepped on the bus cheerily anticipating the experiences of the day, unaware of the encounter that was about to take place. The bus driver spoke, Hey cutie. explained to him that was not his curie and did not desire his unsolicited comments. He snatched my MTA pass, and taunted, Now, you have to say 'please' to get it back. I made several attempts to grab the card but could not. Feeling as if had no other options, was forced to do as he said. He gave me back my card and grabbed my backside as walked towards the back of the bus. No one on the bus said a word. (1) Recently found myself midtown and decided to take a walk through Bryant Park.... [Within moments, one man] invited me to take my clothes off and ... another ... wanted to know why wash't smiling.... [There] were perhaps fifty men, strolling, ambling, striding along eating hot dogs, sitting on benches and reading the paper or trading illegal substances as though they had all the time the world--and three women, all walking quickly and grimly, as was now doing, as though late for an appointment with the dentist. (2) am walking home, and a slightly drunk and slightly disheveled man is following me, saying, Mamma, oh mamma, baby please, wanna fuck you, give good tongue, oh sweetheart, please.... My body is no longer mine. On the street my body is theirs. can define myself all want, but their eyes am a body on the street, two tits and no head and a big ass. My body becomes a cunt, and although I'm not physically raped, psychically am, and ache from it. (3) Unfortunately, these women's experiences are not rare. Indeed, such astonishing encounters occur the daily lives of women throughout the world. (4) Rarely is it the case that a woman a public space is not confronted with unsolicited comments and gestures of a sexual tone by men unknown to her. Yet, it is precisely the ubiquity of this phenomenon that distills its perceived effects on women and on society as a whole. Most men view the occurrence as harmless and even desired by women, while most women resign themselves to the inevitability of the acts and the absence of a vehicle to remedy such harm. Notwithstanding these somewhat discouraging facts, there is hope for a remedy to this problem. Those who fight against the sexual harassment of women public places may find encouragement the advancements made towards the recognition and redress of other harms that largely affect women, such as sexual harassment the workplace. The notion of sexual harassment the workplace was unknown fifty years ago, but is now recognized as a valid harm to women and to society. Great strides have been made this arena, and women now have legally cognizable claims under Title VII and state non-discrimination laws. Further, this type of sexual harassment is socially condemned; it is no longer what bosses do, but carries with it a condemnation that reflects the changing ethical judgments of society. Thus, progress has been made, and this advancement helps to fortify the convictions of those who currently fight against the harassment of women public places and other forms of sexual harassment that are not yet recognized as real injuries to women. Yet, even the illustration of sexual harassment the workplace underscores the limitation of discourse about sexual harassment. In the majority's collective consciousness, the term sexual harassment connotes sexual harassment the workplace; often the add-on, in the workplace, is unnecessary. Certainly, sexual harassment is not unique to employment contexts, yet the conversation largely has been limited to this arena. It is time to begin to expand and develop this discourse order to obtain remedy for other types of sexual harassment. Critical discourse concerning sexual harassment public places began approximately a decade ago. The scholarship that arose at that time explored the harms of such harassment on women and society, existing legal remedies, and formulations for a more effective legal redress. …

Bryant Park

Bryant Park

A Case Study Method For Landscape Architecture

Abstract Case studies are widely used in most professions, including medicine, law, engineering, business, planning, and architecture. This practice is becoming increasingly common in landscape architecture as well. The primmy body of knowledge in landscape architecture is contained in the written and visual documentation—that is, stories—of projects, be it well-known ones such as New York's Central Park, or more modest projects such as a small neighborhood park. Together, these cases provide the primary form of education, innovation, and testing for the profession. They also serve as the collective record of the advancement and development of new knowledge in landscape architecture. This article summarizes a research project commissioned by the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) in 1997 to develop a case study method for landscape architecture. The project concludes that the case study method is a highly appropriate and valuable approach in landscape architecture. This article presents a case study methodology for landscape architecture including its limits and benefits, a suggested methodology and format, and an example case study of Bryant Park in New York City. With increased rigor and funding, the case study method promises to be an increasingly common and effective form of analysis, criticism, and dissemination for landscape architecture research and practice.

New York's Facelift

“ New York is having a facelift,” Lawrence tells us happily, as we step out of the Beauty and the Beast rehearsal at the Palace Theatre onto Broadway. The sun begins to burn through the humid summer smog as Lawrence briskly ushers us to the next stop on our tour. Bryant Park has been purged of drug dealers, he tells us. The office towers, built in the 1980s, have finally been filled with tenants. Across town, the ceiling of Grand Central Station is being scrubbed clean. Lawrence turns a corner too fast, and a group of us— bad tourists that we are— are cut adrift in Times Square, left to wonder if we are missing the section of the tour where he will drop his unqualified enthusiasm for the District’ s new real estate developments and reveal doubts concerning the legislated disappearance of a more-or-less thriving and safe sex industry, or despair that the district will ever again cater to the entertainment desires of a broad spectrum of citydwellers. When we give up on rejoining our tour and resign ourselves to a cheeseburger at the Howard Johnson’ s instead, Lawrence reappears, speeding toward 42nd Street. We latch on and follow the group to the final destination, the Selwyn Theatre, current home of the Times Square Business Improvement District’ s Visitor Center. Lawrence has stuck to the official story. The Times Square Business Improvement District (BID) is one of at least six major regulatory interests in the neighborhood, not counting the developers and private corporations that will actually build on and inhabit the land. 1

Reply

6780 W. Appleton Avenue; Milwaukee, Wiscosin 53216.In Reply:--Overlooking the New York Public Library and adjacent Bryant Park through the large picture window of his New York office for 43 yr, my father, Richard von Foregger, corresponded with manufacturers, surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, hospital superintendents, government officials throughout the world, and with Foregger salesmen on the road, Foregger dealers and representatives, equipment suppliers, and all the vendors necessary to keep a business thriving.Yes, I left many out of the biography; I could not mention everyone. Sorry!Richard Foregger, M.D.; 6780 W. Appleton Avenue; Milwaukee, Wiscosin 53216(Accepted for publication March 25, 1996.)

Downtown, Inc.: How America Rebuilds Cities.

Part 1 A bunch of nobodies: legacy of the big stores, vanishing crowds. Part 2 Sanitizing the city: alliances - the Pittsburgh model highway detours the urban renewal takeover tracking the money demolition by the acre the cover-up casualty count. Part 3 Blueprint for indifference: designed for isolation nobody knows the rubble I've seen the freeway revolt losing urban renewal persuasive protests progress but no applause. Part 4 Would the shopping mall play downtown?: sanctuaries for shopping competing with easy street a tonic for tired cities? roadblocks the gatekeepers searching for new locations. Part 5 Pasadena - no bed of roses: inventing a transplant sweetheart deals pledging future taxes protective maneouvres sharing troubles. Part 6 Entrepreneurial cities and maverick developers: a landmark in Boston James Rouse - mixing pleasure with business a public market in Seattle John Clise - the coalition-builder proving St Paul's competence George Latimer - the Mayor's glue a porno district in San Diego Ernest Hahn - endurance and flexibility Gerald Trimble - the public sector developer. Part 7 Deal making: testing the waters deals to match projects development by consensus City Hall deal makers coping with crisis negotiable designs the relationship is the deal. Part 8 Getting and spending: paying without pain the federal pipeline - good to the last drop digging into local resources safe money for risky projects dovetailing dollars into joint ventures. Part 9 Open for business: Faneuil Hall - marketing the unusual Pike Place - preserving the past town square - making the setting special Horton plaza - designing fantasies. Part 10 Popular success and critical dismay: fear of commerce artificial environments highbrows and lowbrows. Part 11 Privatizing the city: running risks - Burbank, St Paul, Detroit setup for scandal how public is a mall? security at a price the chaining of Main Street. Part 12 Marketplace contributions: uses of commercialism taming Times Square and Bryant Park School for Management the hiding hand selling Columbus Circle. Part 13 Downtown malls and the city agenda: corporate territory 250 Empire State buildings lodgings and lobbies conventioneers the gentry come to town stagecraft big league ambitions logic in the patchwork. Part 14 An unfinished renaissance: indicting City Hall manufacturing myths - New Yrok and Pittsburgh is development unfair? where is the opposition? bargaining for downtown jobs - Baltimore and Boston slowing the pace the mall business do cities learn?.

Bogardus Revisited: Part II: The Iron Towers

THE PARADOX OF James Bogardus has been that thus far his reputation for influencing the course of American architecture has been based on a misguided evaluation of his least significant accomplishment, the cast-iron front. He himself was responsible in large part for this misconception because he emphasized these facades in his advertising pamphlet of 1858, and because he failed to call attention to other works which led directly to an achievement of major importance. If Bogardus' contribution is to be properly judged, it is necessary to assess his whole production. One project which has achieved considerable renown was the proposal which Bogardus submitted in 1852 for New York's Crystal Palace (Fig. 11). The design called for a huge circular hall at least 400 feet in diameter which would have filled Reservoir Square (now Bryant Park), the western half of the two-block site facing Sixth Avenue between Fortieth and Forty-second Streets. In the center a cast-iron circular tower, about 75 feet in lower diameter, was to rise in thirteen open stories to a height of 300 feet. A four-story cast-iron front ringed the 1200-foot outer circumference. The resulting annular hall, with an internal span of about 150 feet, was to be covered by a sheet-iron roof hung from link chains slung radially between tower and outer wall.76 It was easily the boldest project offered in the competition.77 It is obvious that Bogardus' roof was inspired by current interest in suspension bridges. In 1845 John Roebling had built a suspended canal aqueduct over the Allegheny River near Pittsburgh. The following year he completed the Monongehela Bridge in the same city. By 1849 Roebling had erected four more canal aqueducts, and Charles Ellet had gained fame for a Niagara footbridge and his Ohio River span at Wheeling. In 1851 Roebling had begun the first successful railroad suspension bridge, that across the Niagara Gorge.78 No doubt Bogardus had also seen or read of earlier British and French examples. Was he the first to apply the suspension idea to a building? The answer is No, for by 1840, the year in which he had visited France, there was under construction at the Brittany naval base at Lorient a suspended iron roof, 140 feet in span, over the mast shop of the arsenal (Fig. 12). Moreover, in the same year this roof was illustrated in the fifth edition of Sganzin's Cours de Construction, a standard engineering text well known in the United States.79 It is significant that Bogardus did not contemplate hanging his roof on wire cables, already being marketed by Roebling, but proposed link-chains such as were common in British practice and actually used for the similar span of the Lorient atelier.80 Of the supporting elements, the outer wall obviously stemmed from Bogardus' experience with cast-iron fronts. Its greatest interest lay in the ingenious circular plan which, acting as a self-bracing ring, would, theoretically at least, not have required any guys or buttresses to resist the inward pull of the radial roof chains. It was, however, the 300-foot central tower which formed the most prophetic part of the design. Although framed towers in timber were certainly no novelty, and although Trevethick in 1832 and Buckingham in 1848 had proposed towers built of iron, Bogardus' cast-iron skeleton was more than an idle dream because it was based on his own practical experience during the previous year. The Crystal Palace project has been cited as evidence of Bogardus' inventive genius, primarily because of its suspended roof. Its true merit is now seen to lie, not in fundamental innovations, but rather in achieving an imaginative architectural synthesis of current structural ideas.

Sunset in Bryant Park (September, 1930)

Sunset in Bryant Park (September, 1930)