Privately Owned Public Space - by Jerold S Kayden & The New York City Department of City Planning & The Municipal Art Society of New York

Book Synopsis

In New York - wie auch in vielen anderen Großstädten - wächst die Zahl der öffentlichen Plätze, die Privatpersonen gehören und auch privat betrieben werden. Als Gegenleistung für die Schaffung dieser Plätze und Einrichtungen, erhalten die Erbauer von der Stadt Sonderkonzessionen (in der Regel für die Gebäudehöhe). Dieses Buch dokumentiert und beschreibt anhand von Fotos, Lageplänen und Karten über 300 öffentliche Plätze in New York, die in privater Hand sind. Zu den bekanntesten zählen u.a. das Trump Tower Atrium, die Sony Arkade und die Citicorp Mall. Jede Beschreibung enthält Informationen zu Größe, Fertigstellungsdatum, Architekten/Landschaftsarchitekten, Gebäudeeigentümer, Öffnungszeiten und Lage. Zu den Abbildungen gehört jeweils ein Foto sowie eine maßstabsgetreue Zeichnung, die verdeutlichen, wie sich der Bau in die angrenzende Gebäude-/Straßenlandschaft einpaßt. (y05/00)

From the Back Cover

As cities around the world seek new ways to improve their physical, social, and economic environments, they are paying greater attention to the value of public space. Provision of new plazas and parks, reclamation of existing waterfronts, and beautification of public streets are all increasingly viewed as important strategies for enhancing the quality of urban living. With scarce public dollars available, cities are teaming with the private sector in innovative public-private partnerships to fund these approaches.

One of the most significant public-private partnerships to obtain urban public space has been pioneered in New York City under the rubric of privately owned public space. Since 1961, hundreds of office and residential towers have received zoning floor area bonuses to encourage the provision of a wide variety of outdoor and indoor spaces -- plazas, arcades, atriums -- that are legally required to be open and accessible to the public. At their best, these spaces marry aesthetics with function, offering unique physical and social environments within a densely packed urban center. At their worst, they are barren, unusable surfaces or privatizedby-management spaces that diminish the spirit underlying the laws that created them.

Until now, comprehensive, systematic knowledge about this vast collection of public spaces has not existed, either for experts or members of the public. To remedy this gap, Harvard University professor Jerold S. Kayden, The New York City Department of City Planning, and The Municipal Art Society of New York have joined forces to research and write Privately Owned Public Space: The New York City Experience. Through words, photographs, scaled site plans, maps, and analysis of newly assembled data, they examine the history, law, design, and use of the city's privately owned public spaces. Each of the more than 500 spaces is individually discussed to provide far-reaching comparative information about this unique category of public space.

In reading this book, designers, planners, lawyers, and academics will gain greater understanding about the possibilities and problems inherent in the design, management, and enforcement of privately owned public space. Public officials, private owners, and civic group representatives will learn more about their roles in ensuring public access and vitality of such spaces. Individuals will discover where New York City's public spaces are located and what amenities they offer. Everyone will comprehend more completely the contribution that privately owned public space can make toward open and attractive cities in which all individuals have access to a diversity of public places.

Review Quotes

"This extensive work provides for the first time a detailed look at the city's experience, pro and con, through photographs, maps, site plans, observed behaviors, and extensive notes." (Urbanparadoxes.com, 5/08)

"The Introduction to Privately Owned Private Space is a history of New York City's attempts at planning and zoning beginning in 1916 and continuing to the present. The detail of the history is sharp while not talking down to the novice, and the politics is fascinating." (ArchitectureWeek.com, April 25, 2001)

"The book should also appeal to any enthusiast of urban spaces anywhere in the world, because the lessons learned in the "Big Apple" are applicable anywhere. This is a history book, an incredibly detailed map of the New York City, and a lesson in civics all rolled into one." (F.L. Andrew Padian, ArchitectureWeek.com)

"This long overdue collaborative effort among urban planning professor Jerold Kayden, New York City's Department of Planning, and the Municipal Art Society, and involving dozens of researchers, is one of the most important books to be published about New York City in years.... Along the same lines, in today's publishing environment, most commercial trade publishers would not likely be interested, and too many high-quality, general interest, New York City-related titles must vie for the limited resources of a few university presses or very small publishing houses that do not have the resources to take on this kind of project -- congratulations to John Wiley for publishing this book." (Bradley Beach Books, 9/01)

About the Author

JEROLD S. KAYDEN, a lawyer and urban planner, is Associate Professor of Urban Planning at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He has published widely, coauthoring Landmark Justice: The Influence of William J. Brennan on America's Communities and coediting Zoning and the American Dream: Promises Still to Keep.

THE NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF CITY PLANNING guides the City's physical development and formulates land use plans and strategic policies with major goals that include encouraging housing and economic development, improving the City's quality of life, and preserving its neighborhoods.

THE MUNICIPAL ART SOCIETY OF NEW YORK is a private, nonprofit membership organization that champions excellence in urban design and planning, and preservation of the best of New York's past. Situated in the Urban Center in midtown Manhattan, the Society engages citizens on issues of the city's built environment.