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Entry 5
My apartment directly faces this space, and I recall a shallow blue
pool in this space many years ago--it looked beautiful against the
trees. I suggest a community garden built around a water theme: fountain/s
inside a shallow blue painted pool, surrounded by lovely grasses (Battery
Park style) and plants and a ring of benches around the fountain.
The water sound would create tranquility and mask the noise from Essex.
The garden and fountain and pool would be a lovely sight from Buildings
3 and 4 apartments and from the street. But keep it walled off from
Essex St. with a brick and iron fence to keep swirling papers and
trash from making it dirty. We also need direct access to Essex St.
but I wouldn't put it here or the gate will soon give access to people
on the street. As a child, I lived in 504 Grand St (Amalgamated) and
the fountain inside the central courtyard was the nicest feature of
the building and created a real sense of community -- mothers strolled
their babies around the fountain, and it was a peaceful and safe place
for children to congregate. I like dogs but we need a park for residents
more than a dog run. We also need Essex access but not from the park.
I'm enclosing a photograph of the 504 Grand St. courtyard with the
central fountain at 504 Grand St., for those of you who haven't seen
it. It illustrates how water in the center of trees and a small park
creates a peaceful and unifying setting. Of course, it helps that
it's totally enclosed by a six story building with a north view of
Broome St. through the largest arch as the only break in enclosure.
(There are also two smaller arches, not shown, which lead to staircases
up to Grand ST on the west side and Willet St on the east.) The pool
with fountain at 504 is just a couple of feet deep, not meant for
swimming or dangling one's feet. I don't recall seeing anyone in the
pool. In spring it was surrounded by tulips, and when leaves from
the surrounding trees fell into the pool, it looked nice (maybe we
could have water lilies!). It's been there since 1930, and I've never
heard of any child drowning.
What makes it work is the sense of enclosure with only an arched view
to the street (I think the main gate to the building is now at that
arch). Depending on the size of the Hester St parcel, it might be
important to give it a sense of enclosure, either with surround trees
and/or a low brick wall.
I know a gate or access to Essex is important to many and if you are
considering combining it with the park, I would argue it should be
placed in a separate place, not the middle of the park. Even entering
our buildings, when you open the door, it is just impossible to keep
people you don't know from walking in behind you -- what can you do
to stop them from coming in, if they've been waiting in the lobby,
or arrived when you did? So even with security facing our building
doorways, it's impossible to keep them out. If we had a gate at the
park (or elsewhere) on Hester St, every time someone walked through
it to enter or leave Essex St, it's inevitable that outsiders will
walk in. And we don't have security there to ask who they are. I think
this creates a potentially dangerous arrangement. Imagine someone
walking back to building 3 or 4 through a gate on Essex Street, especially
at night, but even in the4 day. No security guard and possibly no
one in the area, they could easily be followed by someone they couldn't
prevent from walking in -- it's a perfect setup for a mugging -- esp.
at night. And apart from security considerations, at the minimum,
it allows outsiders to come in and use the park. If we keep the entrance
and park open to view with only an iron gate, all the trash and garbage
from people walking by on Essex will be tossed or blown into the park.
Take a look along that fence on Essex and you will see the trash (or
I remember how it accumulated before the running track was installed).
So maybe we should keep the park enclosed with trees or a low brick
wall, and put the gate to Essex somewhere else, where it may be more
open to view and with an iron gate. |