Showing posts with label Landscape. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Landscape. Show all posts
Friday, December 27, 2013
Thursday, July 26, 2012
My Favorite Place in New York: The Granite Prospect at Brooklyn Bridge Park
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| Granite Prospect at night |
Over at my other diversion, Tuna Day, we've kept up a conceit known as "Open Request Sunday," which is pretty much just as it sounds. Loyal followers take turns sending in song requests (or more often, getting strong-armed into submitting songs), which are posted on the blog every Sunday. It has turned into a great way to incorporate a little more diversity into the rotation, as the requests often represent music I would never even consider posting to the blog (Norwegian electronica?!).
Why shouldn't we do something similar at Boxed Out? So here it is... "My Favorite Place in New York." No rules, except that the place must be located somewhere in the Five Boroughs, of course. Today, I'll kick things off. Then, one of you can take the stand, patiently explaining that Brooklyn is "vastly overrated (you hipster/yuppie/bohemian scum!)" and that--if you really think about it--the Society of Illustrators is way better/cooler/quirkier than any stupid waterfront park. Pretty soon, all 8 million people here will have weighed in with their own personal takes! Okay, okay. First things first...
There's no experience in New York quite like that of standing at the top of the Granite Prospect. It's part Spanish Steps, part Brooklyn Promenade, with the exhilaration of the top of Rockefeller Center. While it has been lovingly dubbed "The Stairway to Nowhere," it acts more as an amphitheater, a playground and a picnic spot. Last weekend, it even hosted the performance of an opera. When approached from the east,
it forms a stunning, expansive vista, revealed after a brief and
slightly inclined procession through an intimate path enveloped by dense
foliage. The stairs sweep down, and somewhere the ground stops and the water begins. Built from granite salvaged from the Roosevelt Island Bridge reconstruction project, the materiality of the stairs feels rough and rich, massive but broken-in and familiar as an old baseball mitt. Designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, the extensive Brooklyn Bridge Park has emphatically reconnected Brooklyners to 1.3 miles of previously unused waterfront land. This grand staircase, as it opens up to the river and the skyline, and Governors Island and the Statue of Liberty beyond, reinforces the recent notion of the water as the "Sixth Borough" that ties the city together. For me, the Granite Prospect is a paragon of so much of what is great about New York: the invigorating movement of its people, the sanctuary of its abundant parks, the majesty of its skyline, and the waterways that birthed it and serve as its common thread.
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| Bird's eye view of Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 1 from the West (background image via Bing Maps) |
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| Granite Prospect at Dusk |
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| A picnic at dusk on the granite steps |
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| Morning view of Lower Manhattan |
So all of you current and former New Yorkers--or even out-of-towners!--consider this a call for requests. If you have an idea, just send me photos, links, description, and whatever else you would like to explain your choice. Hopefully we can turn this into a regular feature... and maybe someday a visitor's guide :)
How to get to the Granite Prospect:
Take the A or C train to High Street (the first station in Brooklyn), then walk northwest (towards the Brooklyn Bridge) along Cadman Plaza West/Old Fulton Street. When you get to Fulton Landing, the entrance to the park at Pier 1 is on the left. Head to the water and take a left. The staircase will be at the south end of the pier.
The 2, 3 and F trains also stop nearby.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
More from Brooklyn Bridge Park
A few more photos documenting the existing state and construction at the waterfront park, the largest park to be created in New York since Central Park opened in 1873:
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| View from Promenade to Piers 4 through 6. 6 is largely complete. Governors Island is in the distance. |
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Brooklyn Bridge Park Brings the Noise
Much to report from our Naval-gazing stomping grounds last weekend. Vegetation sprouting! Photoville ending! Pavement blistering! A pool... idling? No!
Brooklyn Bridge Park was in full effect, even if its effect is not yet full. As you may know, only two piers are complete (of 6 in the works). Pier 1--directly south of Fulton Landing--is home to one of my favorite spaces in the city (more in the future), as well as a rotating calendar of events, including live music, kite flying and outdoor movies (beginning tomorrow). At the south end of the park, Pier 6--with playgrounds, sand volleyball and rooftop hot dogs--marks the western end of Atlantic Avenue. In between is mostly construction, though a couple of nice surprises popped up recently. Maura and I finally checked out Photoville with a friend, never mind that it was one of the hottest days of the summer. The shipping containers formed a village of exhibitions featuring everything from portraits of unassuming Mainers with compelling stories to a container-scale camera obscura. Those fatigued by the sweat lodge of the camera obscura exhibit, which projected an upside-down image of the skyline onto a screen in a pitch-black room, could find solace beneath the tents in the food court. The central court featured a number of visiting food trucks, which featured empanadas, kimchi tacos and Cool Haus ice cream sandwiches (guess which one was started by frustrated architects).
Just north of Photoville, we stopped to check on the "temporary" pool, which has yet to open. The pool features more shipping containers, some of which serve as bath houses. It seemed to spring up in a matter of days, and I noticed today that the area to the north has been filled with sand (more volleyball?), and there looks to be a playground or water park coming next. Supposedly the pool will stand for 5 years until the spot gets a permanent tenant.
Stay tuned for more from our closest and dearest, sparkliest, parkliest park.
Brooklyn Bridge Park was in full effect, even if its effect is not yet full. As you may know, only two piers are complete (of 6 in the works). Pier 1--directly south of Fulton Landing--is home to one of my favorite spaces in the city (more in the future), as well as a rotating calendar of events, including live music, kite flying and outdoor movies (beginning tomorrow). At the south end of the park, Pier 6--with playgrounds, sand volleyball and rooftop hot dogs--marks the western end of Atlantic Avenue. In between is mostly construction, though a couple of nice surprises popped up recently. Maura and I finally checked out Photoville with a friend, never mind that it was one of the hottest days of the summer. The shipping containers formed a village of exhibitions featuring everything from portraits of unassuming Mainers with compelling stories to a container-scale camera obscura. Those fatigued by the sweat lodge of the camera obscura exhibit, which projected an upside-down image of the skyline onto a screen in a pitch-black room, could find solace beneath the tents in the food court. The central court featured a number of visiting food trucks, which featured empanadas, kimchi tacos and Cool Haus ice cream sandwiches (guess which one was started by frustrated architects).
Just north of Photoville, we stopped to check on the "temporary" pool, which has yet to open. The pool features more shipping containers, some of which serve as bath houses. It seemed to spring up in a matter of days, and I noticed today that the area to the north has been filled with sand (more volleyball?), and there looks to be a playground or water park coming next. Supposedly the pool will stand for 5 years until the spot gets a permanent tenant.
Stay tuned for more from our closest and dearest, sparkliest, parkliest park.
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| New temporary pool in Brooklyn Bridge Park |
Friday, January 21, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
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