T H E I N T E R N A T I O N A L R E V I E W O F L A N D S C A P E A R C H I T E C T U R E A N D U R B A N D E S I G N

Urba

n Sp

ace

612007

,!7ID7G6-hbhfjh!ISBN 978-3-7667-1759-7

Urban space: Public life in the city is constantly changing, which has effects on the city’s openspace. Consequently the demands made on urban space are manifold. Whether in historical con-texts or in new city districts, it must meet at least one: the provision of usable and aestheticallyattractive places, where urban residents have a sense of wellbeing. Topos presents successfulexamples from all over the world, among others from New York, Santiago de Chile and Beirut,from London, Shanghai and Kraków.

Urban SpaceJAN GEHL PUBLIC SPACES AND PUBLIC L IFE · KLAUS TÖPFER THE SUSTAINABILITY OF CIT IES · BEIRUT SAMIR KASSIR SQUARE · GENEVA PLACE

DES NATIONS · SANTIAGO DE CHILE P L A Z A D E L A C I U DA DA N Í A · SPLIT THE RIVA · LONDON BANKSIDE URBAN FOREST · KRAKÓW AND SIBIU

REGENERATION OF THE INNER CITY · NEW YORK CITY THE SEARCH FOR URBAN SPACE · MOROCCO, KENYA AND VIETNAM STRATEGIC URBAN

PROJECTS · SHANGHAI NEW PUBLIC SPACE · CRAIG POCOCK C A R B O N F O OT P R I N T · ANGKOR M E D I E VA L S P R AW L

61 20

07

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3

Robert Schäfer

Most of humanity lives in cities. Although

cities with enormous sprawl existed even in

the Middle Ages, as documented by this issue’s

article on the Cambodian city of Angkor, the

megacities of our time sometimes go beyond

the limits of the imaginable and the manage-

able. People crowd into cities in their search

for work; many of them have no other choice

if they want to survive. Climate change, food

supply and the lack of water call for intelligent

strategies, as we have attempted to show in

Topos 60.

Beyond such thoughts on the ecology and eco-

nomics of the city, which we can call ecovalue,

we should not forget to design the city itself so

that it can handle its responsibilities in the first

place. The tasks are manifold. While cities in

countries such as Germany are shrinking and

thus subject to transformation, cities from São

Paulo to Seoul are literally exploding. The

infrastructure and organisation of public life

are not always developing harmoniously and

effectively. Above all, all cities seem to be

swelling according to the old, actually super-

seded growth pattern. The buildings tower

upwards; the canyons between them are mostly

freed up for motorised traffic.

Probably the worst heritage of Modernism is

the city sacrificed to the automobile. It is a

model that has no future viability, not only

because of the rising cost of oil. People are not

born to be car drivers and yet they all patiently

let themselves get trapped and obey fate. But

now the time has come to reconsider because

imminent challenges will bring new mixed

uses, new management and different organisa-

tional forms of everyday life.

A noteworthy study from Great Britain may

provide food for thought in this regard.

Because many children are becoming obese

and inflexible due to lacking exercise (and

incorrect nutrition), urban spaces should be

designed in future so as to encourage exercise,

to make going through town on foot a plea-

sure, not only for window shopping but also

on the way to school or work. This simple pro-

posal nevertheless seems utopian to some. Yet

city life should not mean breathing bad air,

teetering on the narrowest of pedestrian paths,

trying to find one’s way by zigzagging between

motorways. The quality of urban space

includes many things, from a pleasant micro-

climate – to which plants, particularly trees,

make an essential contribution – through

spaces for public uses to places where people

can form community, which is after all what is

responsible for the functioning of a city dis-

trict, city or urban agglomeration worth living

in. Improvements can often be achieved even

with little means. Only there must first be an

intention to change.

U R B A N S P A C E E D I T O R I A L

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36 The Riva: Split’s water-

front adjacent to the Palace

of Diocletian, a World Heri-

tage Site, is one of the city’s

main public squares. At night,

the Riva becomes a bright

promenade.

Cover: Plaza Dalí, MadridDesign: Francisco José Mangado Beloqui (architect),Francesc Torres (artist)Photo: Miguel de Guzmán

23 Samir Kassir Square, Beirut: the design

of the square revolves around magnificent fig

trees and a pool. The pool separates the square

from the busy street.

Gera

ldin

e Br

unee

l

Sand

ro L

endl

er

46 Sibiu, Romania: Piata Mare, the Large Square, is one

of the newly renovated squares in the historic centre of the

Transylvanian city.

Scot

t Eas

tman

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5

97 New York’s Bryant Park: the Manhattan

landmark regained its former beauty and pop-

ular use after comprehensive restoration.

50 Bankside quarter, London: the re-use of

viaduct arches supports the regeneration strat-

egy of the southern banks of the Thames.

31 Place des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland:

coloured light underlines the different parts

and elements of the square.

JAN GEHL

16 Public Spaces for a Changing Public LifeUniversal elementary quality criteria for urban open spaces

MOHAMMAD AL-ASAD, FEDERICO ALVAREZ ARRIETA

23 Samir Kassir Square in BeirutUrban open space in the Lebanese capital

BRAULIO EDUARDO MORERA

27 Plaza de la Ciudadanía, Santiago de ChileA public square’s vocation for urban integration

ANNE VONÈCHE

31 The New Place des Nations, GenevaSwitzerland: a symbolic square in front of the UN building

MARTINA PETRINOVIC

36 The Riva of Split, CroatiaContemporary urban waterfront in a historical context

ANNA SKRZYNSKA

41 Urban Space in KrakówPoland: landscape design in a historical setting

IOANA TUDORA

46 New Urban Life for a World Heritage SiteThe restoration of squares in Sibiu, Romania

KEN WORPOLE

50 The Bankside Urban ForestPublic space strategy for London’s Bankside quarter

PETER STEGNER

56 Beyond the FamiliarThe search for urban space in New York City

ADAM REGN ARVIDSON

66 Landscape Architects to the StarsMinneapolis: collaboration between star architects and

local landscape architects

STEFANIE RUFF, NANNAN DONG

70 Dancing TrianglesNew public space in a residential area in Shanghai

BRUNO DE MEULDER, KELLY SHANNON

74 Contested Sites and Strategic Urban ProjectsMorocco, Kenya and Vietnam: urban design as a tool for

negotiation

KLAUS TÖPFER

81 The Sustainability of CitiesDesign of cities, urban agglomerations and megacities for

future viability

CRAIG POCOCK

86 The Carbon LandscapeCarbon footprint and landscape architecture

SCOTT HAWKEN

90 Angkor: Sprawling Forms of a Medieval MetropolisResearch in Cambodia help explain low-density cities

NADINE GERDTS

97 Landscape Architecture in the United StatesSeries: The state of the profession around the world

Currents6 News, Personalities, Competitions, Projects

104 Calendar, Reports, Reviews

110 Authors

111 Credits/Imprint

Alai

n Gr

anch

amp/

Tow

n of

Gen

eva

Olin

Par

tner

ship

With

erfo

rd W

atso

n M

ann

U R B A N S P A C E T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

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C U R R E N T S N E W S

N E W S

Nine projects were awarded

the Aga Khan Award for

Architecture in early Sep-

tember. One of the winning

projects was Samir Kassir

Square in Beirut by Vladimir

Djurovic landscape architects

of Lebanon (see page 23).

Two urban design projects

were also granted awards. The

motor for these rehabilitation

projects was not buildings

preservation but the creation

of new economic and social

structures that will restore the

city’s vitality. The Nicosia

Master Plan Project treats the

city as a unified entity, imple-

menting works in both parts

of town. New architecture

and conversion projects serve

as catalysts to revive the city

centre.

Further awards went to the

Central Market in

Koudougou, Burkina Faso; the

University of Technology

Petronas in Bandar Seri

Iskandar, Malaysia; the

Moulmein Rise Residential

Tower in Singapore; the Royal

Netherlands Embassy in Addis

Ababa, Ethiopia; a school in

Rudrapur in Dinajpur,

Bangladesh; and the restora-

tion of the Amiriya Complex

in Rada, Yemen.

The Aga Khan Award is grant-

ed every three years by the

Aga Khan, the Imam of the

Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims.

It distinguishes projects that

set new standards of excel-

lence in architecture, plan-

ning, historic preservation

and landscape design in soci-

eties where Muslims have sig-

nificant presence.

Award winners:

• Samir Kassir Square, Beirut,

Lebanon: Vladimir Djurovic (land-

scape architect), Solidere (client)

• Rehabilitation of the City of

Shibam,Yemen: GTZ Technical

Office and GOPHCY (architects),

Ministry of Culture, Yemen,

German Federal Ministry of

Economic Cooperation, Local

community, Shibam (clients)

• Central Market, Koudougou,

Burkina Faso: Swiss Agency for

Development and Cooperation

(SDC)/Laurent Séchaud (archi-

tects), Koudougou Municipality

(client)

• University of Technology Petronas,

Bandar Seri Iskandar, Malaysia:

Foster + Partners, UK, GDP

Architects Sdn Bhd, Malaysia

(architects), Institute of

Technology Petronas (client)

• Restoration of the Amiriya

Complex, Rada,Yemen: Selma Al-

Radi, Yahya Al-Nasiri (conserva-

tors), Government of Yemen,

General Organisation for

Antiquities, Museums and

Manuscripts (client)

• Moulmein Rise Residential Tower,

Singapore: WOHA Architects/Wong

Mun Summ, Richard Hassel

(architects), UOL Development

Pte Ltd, Singapore (client)

• Royal Netherlands Embassy, Addis

Ababa, Ethiopia: Dick van

Gameren, Bjarne Mastenbroek

(architects), Dutch Ministry of

Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands

(client)

• Rehabilitation of the Walled City,

Nicosia, Cyprus: Nicosia

Masterplan Team (architects),

Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot

Communities of Nicosia (client)

• School in Rudrapur, Dinajpur,

Bangladesh: Anna Heringer,

Austria, Eike Roswag, Germany

(architects); Dipshikha/METI non-

formal Education, Training and

Research Society for Village

Development (client)

Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2007

The LE:NOTRE Thematic Network Project in Landscape

Architecture, which had its fifth anniversary in October 2007,

can now celebrate this milestone with the success of a new

funding application. Like Topos, LE:NOTRE is going global.

Under the title of “LE:NOTRE Mundus” the European Union

has approved a grant of some 250,000 euros to extend the pro-

ject’s scope beyond the boundaries of the otherwise “eligible”

countries in Europe. Besides extending the geographic and cul-

tural reach of the Network, the new LE:NOTRE Mundus Project

will continue to involve all the existing 100 European university

members in the joint development of new international teach-

ing material on two important global topics to which landscape

architecture has a vital contribution to make: urban landscapes

in the context of the global phenomenon of growing cities and

the world’s threatened cultural landscapes.

The 23 new member universities are in Canada, the USA, China,

South Korea, Thailand, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Israel,

Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Australia and New

Zealand. The first meeting of the new extended LE:NOTRE

Network will take place in Brussels from 13 to 16 March 2008,

hosted by the Erasmus Hoogeschool.

After the European Union funding agency’s request to present

the project website (www.le-notre.org) to the Network

Coordinators of the other 38 Thematic Network Projects fund-

ed by the Erasmus Program, developing the website has by no

means come to a halt. Perhaps the most important initiative at

the moment is the development of a Europe-wide eLearning

platform. Although still at a very early stage, it points the way to

a future in which the true potential of international collaboration

making full use of electronic communication can be exploited.

Within the European context too, the Network plans to expand

by opening up access to the project, and in particular to the

website, to a wider range of stakeholders. These will include

landscape architecture students, landscape practices and munic-

ipal authorities and their landscape teams. If you wish to regis-

ter on the LE:NOTRE Project website and get a password, please

contact the Network Coordinator (richard.stiles@tuwien.ac.at)

or your nearest LE:NOTRE Network member university.

Last but not least, cooperation between LE:NOTRE and its part-

ner organisations is to be intensified. In addition to EFLA, IFLA

and ELASA, LE:NOTRE’s partner organisations include Topos as

the official “media partner”. Richard Stiles

LE:NOTRE project goes global

Aga

Khan

Trus

t for

Cul

ture

Hand-built in four months by the

architects Anna Heringer and Eike

Roswag, as well as craftsmen, pupils,

parents and teachers, the primary

school in Rudrapur uses traditional

construction methods and materials

but adapts them in new ways.

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N E W S C U R R E N T S

7

It was the second time that

the International Urban Land-

scape Award was granted by

Eurohypo AG in cooperation

with the two journals Topos

and Architektur& Wohnen, a

German residential design

magazine. The distinction

went to Parc Central de Nou

Barris in Barcelona, designed

by the architects Andreu

Arriola and Carme Fiol. Topos

reported on the winning and

nominated projects for the

IULA 2007 in Topos 60. The

certificates were presented at a

gala event in Frankfurt am

Main to representatives of the

City of Barcelona and the

architects on 5 October. The

prize money of 50,000 euros

will benefit the park.

International Urban Landscape Award IULA 2007

ECLAS, European Council of

Landscape Architecture Schools (ed).

JoLA, Journal of Landscape

Architecture. Autumn 2007. Callwey

Verlag, Munich 2007.

www.info-jola.de

The award ceremony for the 2007

International Urban Landscape

Award (IULA) took place in

Frankfurt/Main, Germany, on 5

October. The patron Prof. Dr. Klaus

Töpfer presented the award to the

first-prize winners Carme Fiol and

Andreu Arriola of Arriola&Fiol,

Barcelona, and to the representative

of the City of Barcelona.

The new issue of JoLA, Journal of Landscape Architecture edit-

ed by ECLAS features contributions from Asia, where urban

development is driving the need for a landscape approach to

urbanism. Kelly Shannon and Samitha Manawadu examine Sri

Lanka’s reservoir system while Singapore is the focus of Richard

Weller and Steven Velegrini’s paper. Marieluise C. Jonas writes

about informal flowerpot gardens in Japanese urban landscapes,

and Bianca Maria Rinaldi focuses on the Cheonggyecheon lin-

ear park in Seoul, which replaces a motorway.

With this issue, JoLA demonstrates the importance of intercul-

tural exchange and looking beyond borders. JoLA has already

secured itself a firm position among specialist professional pub-

lications and is top-notch as far as layout and presentation are

concerned. Anyone dealing with the subject of landscape in

teaching and research cannot afford not to subscribe to it even

now.

JoLA 4 published

Tors

ten

Silz/

Euro

hypo

“New landscapes – new lives – new challenges in landscape

planning, design and management” will be the theme of the

2008 ECLAS Conference, which the European Council of

Landscape Architecture Schools will hold at the Swedish

University of Agricultural Sciences in Alnarp between 11 and

14 September 2008.

Proposals for oral or poster presentations on the following top-

ics: design in new urban contexts, new regional and global per-

spectives, cultural heritage of future landscapes, planting design,

construction and management, communicative approaches and

stakeholder participation, and new approaches to teaching land-

scape architecture, may be submitted until 21 January 2008.

Please send abstracts (max. 500 words) by email to

eclas2008@slu.se.

For continuously updated information on the conference, see:

www.ltj.slu.se/eclas

ECLAS Conference 2008: Call for Abstracts

The City of Barcelona will use

it to help finance the conver-

sion of a former agricultural

building on the park grounds.

The plans call for it to be set

up as an environmental edu-

cation centre.

The patron Klaus Töpfer gave

a ceremonial address on the

subject of “Cities and Sustain-

ability”. The subsequent podi-

um discussion on megacities

demonstrated the imponder-

ables of urban development,

particularly with regard to cli-

mate change and the scarcity

of energy and resources.

An International Urban

Landscape Award IULA 2008

is planned. Themes and eligi-

bility will presumably be

announced in Topos 62.

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16

During the year 2005 a cross section of pub-

lic life in the City of Copenhagen was surveyed

and documented in the book New City Life. The

study documented the character and volume of

public life in various parts of the city – from

inner city squares and streets to outlying dis-

tricts and new towns. This survey was the fourth

link in a series of major public life surveys con-

ducted in Copenhagen over four decades (1968,

1986, 1995 and 2005). With these surveys it has

been possible to document how the character of

life in the public spaces has undergone dramat-

ic changes corresponding with changes in life-

styles and with the society situation in general.

Jan Gehl

Previous patterns where streets and squares

were primarily used for activities people had to

do, had by 2005 been gradually changed into

new patterns of activities where recreation, cul-

tural activities and enjoyment played a major

role. Also in this context it was documented how

the quality of the public spaces has gained in-

creasing importance.

In a society situation where public life is

dominated by necessary activities the quality of

the public spaces is not an all-important issue.

People will use the city spaces regardless of qual-

ity because they have to. This pattern can be seen

all over the world in countries with less devel-

Public life and urban spaces have undergone dramatic changes corresponding with changes

in lifestyles and society. Simple, but rather universal elementary quality criteria help to analyze,

evaluate and assess squares, streets and other urban spaces. Protection, comfort and enjoyment

are essential for open space design.

oped economies. In a society situation where use

of public space becomes more and more a mat-

ter of interest and choice, the quality of the

spaces becomes a crucial factor for the death or

life of modern cities.

Wanted: lively, safe and sustainable cities.After many years of one sided focus on traffic

and automobile issues, quite a few cities, such as

Copenhagen and Melbourne, have by now intro-

duced new planning principles placing priority

on inviting people to walk and bicycle as much

as possible in the cause of their daily patterns.

This reorientation towards the people in the

Public Spaces for a Changing Public Life

S.016-022_Gehl_M01.qxd 11.12.2007 11:57 Uhr Seite 16

1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

L ACTIVITIESTION)

NECESSARY ACTIVITIES

PUBLIC URBAN SPACESPEDESTRIAN STREETS TRAFFIC CALMING

CAR INVASION

ACTIVE

PASSIVE

WILL OCCUR ONLYIF HIGH QUALITY

IS PROVIDED

WILL OCCUR REGARD-LESS OF THE QUALITY

PROVIDED

OPTIONA(URBAN RECREA

17

cities places strong demands on the planning

and design of old and new districts alike. Care-

ful planning for walking and bicycling is a noble

cause in itself, but will evidently serve a much

wider agenda. In a time where lively, attractive,

safe and sustainable cities, with healthy individ-

ual lifestyles have become important political is-

sues, sending a strong invitation for walking and

bicycling to the citizens will be an obvious way

to meet such a policy. So obvious is this route

that it may be difficult to find anyone, citizen or

politician, who in the present day society, will

not want a lively, attractive, safe, sustainable and

healthy city.

The graphic illustration shows the dramatic changes in the character of city life during the 20th century:

essential work-related activities dominate around 1900.The streets are crowded with people, most of whom

have to use city space for their daily activities.The picture has changed appreciably by the year 2000.

Essential activities play only a limited role because the exchange of goods, news and transport has moved

indoors. In contrast, elective recreational activities have grown exponentially. Where the city once provided

a framework almost exclusively for work-related daily life, the city hums with leisure- and consumer-related

activities in 2000.

Recreational activities set high standards for the quality of city space, and can be roughly divided into two

categories: 1) passive staying activities such as stopping to watch city life from a step, a bench or a café, and

2) active, sporty activities like jogging and skating.

The timeline also shows when the car invasion hit Denmark in the mid-1950s.The pressure of car traffic and

functionalistic city planning in the 1960s triggered a counter-reaction to reclaim attractive city space and a

useable public realm. In the following 40 years this reaction was reinforced, and developed nationally and

internationally in an ongoing process.

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23

Mohammad al-Asad, Federico Alvarez Arrieta

B eirut is in the process of reinventing itself after decades of war and

devastation that have erased a significant part of its urban fabric.

The area of the Beirut Central District was once one of the live-

liest and most emblematic quarters of the city. In this sense, the Beirut

Central District has the potential of becoming a host for truly successful

public spaces where all sorts of people, regardless of religious or political

backgrounds can feel comfortable, making these spaces their own.

Like any other city, Beirut needs urban spaces that respond to all sorts

of people’s needs, be it for leisure, commercial, cultural, or political pur-

poses. Also, the need to recuperate some kind of symbolic space that roots

and represents the people of Beirut, their lifestyle and customs, is of the

utmost importance. There is a longing for the city that Beirut once was.

This does not mean that the Beirut Central District should try to recuper-

ate its old physiognomy, but it definitely should try to provide Beiruti rep-

resentative qualities.

Samir Kassir Square received this year’s Aga Khan

Award for Architecture. It is part of a series of urban

open spaces in the centre of the war-torn Lebanese

capital. Like any other city, Beirut needs urban

spaces that respond to all sorts of people’s needs.

SAMIR KASSIR SQUARE IN BEIRUT

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50

Ken Worpole

The regeneration of London’s Bankside quarter, most famous for the Tate Modern, is being accompanied

by a public space strategy with an ecological approach.The Bankside Urban Forest is a proposal for a

wholly new concept of urban green space networks and linkages.

Bankside is a densely populated and historic quarter on the southern bank

of the River Thames in London.The area is being regenerated, with about 50

projects currently under consideration. Several illustrative projects (dark

green) have been proposed to help bind the public space network together.

THE BANKSIDE URBAN FOREST

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51

T his proposal imagines the Bankside public realm strategy as an ur-

ban forest rather than a park. There is an important difference. The

term park originates with the Latin parricus or French parc, both

meaning enclosure. The early English deer-parks were royal hunting

grounds and strictly policed, for instance, whereas the forest has always

been regarded as a place of liberty and without distinct boundaries.

Over time,“forest space” has acquired a set of architectural and topo-

graphical associations with a sense of open-endedness and permeability, a

place that can be entered or exited at any point at its edges, and which

visually changes and re-configures itself as the traveller moves through it.

Because of their organic origins, forests offer a multiplicity of paths, routes,

changes of direction, as well as clearings, copses, streams, rides and allées.

“A person should be able to walk through a forest on the way from home

to work,” the architect Alvar Aalto once said. In his book, Forests: the Shad-

ow of civilization, the American literary critic, Robert Pogue Harrison, has

similarly made cultural claims for the forest as an abiding element in

human experience, even when transplanted into modern conditions: “If

forests appear in our religions as places of profanity, they also appear as

sacred. If they have typically been considered places of lawlessness, they

have also provided havens for those who took up the cause of justice and

fought the law’s corruption. If they evoke associations of danger and aban-

don in our minds, they also evoke scenes of enchantment. In other words,

in the religions, mythologies and literatures of the West, the forest appears

as a place where the logic of distinction goes astray.”

Thus, there were great strengths in respecting the existing labyrinthine

set of streets and settlements, which inspired the idea of the Bankside forest.

Local residents interviewed for this study have confirmed the importance to

them of the distinctive irregular street patterns of the area, together with the

many courtyards, railway arches, viaducts, bridges and alleyways.

Though the forest idea introduces elements now associated with “green-

ing the city”, and largely determined by ecological imperatives – to counter

CO2 emissions, to lower ambient temperatures, to increase surface water re-

tention and avoid flooding – there are equally important social and eco-

nomic imperatives in the forest strategy too. By adopting a more ecologi-

cal approach to urban space strategies, there are greater opportunities to

From top: the forest framework is formed by scattered historic places and

small open spaces. Ongoing projects begin to connect the public space net-

work. As the forest matures, significant spaces will be re-used and the inter-

twining of the forest’s network will create opportunities for the diverse users.

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Beyond the FamiliarThe Search for Urban Space in New York City

In 1970, the artist Robert Smithson conceived his “Floating Island to Travel

Around Manhattan Island”. In 2005, Minetta Brook, with the Whitney Museum

of American Art and Balmori Associates, realized the landscaped barge which

traveled up and down the Hudson and East Rivers in September that year.

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57

Peter Stegner

B y 2030, New York City’s population is expected to grow by almost

a million to a total of over nine million residents. This develop-

ment is considered both a success story as well as a major challen-

ge putting enormous pressure on the city’s outdated infrastructure and

existing open space system. Mayor Bloomberg’s NYCPLAN30, which was

introduced in 2006, is articulating a vision for a greener, more sustainable

metropolis. One goal declared in NYCPLAN30 is that every New Yorker

should have access to green open spaces within 10 minutes’ walking

distance from his or her residence. This goal requires new strategies and

visions for identifying, developing, financing, and maintaining potential

open spaces: an idea that seems to fall on fertile ground just as New

Yorkers have in the past tapped into new territory in searching for,

redefining and reclaiming of urban open space.

Urban space in all five boroughs of New York City – Manhattan, Brook-

lyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island – is under constant transforma-

tion by both highly visible and prominent projects undertaken by the city,

state and powerful developers, as well as lesser known initiatives and in-

terventions developed by dedicated citizens, community groups or non-

profit organizations running often on very tight budgets or with uncertain

outcome. Sometimes both groups of players join together and an idea or

desire expressed by highly motivated and engaged citizens evolves into a

multimillion, city and corporation sponsored development with huge eco-

nomic and physical impact on whole neighborhoods. This process is cur-

rently happening with the construction of the linear park on top of the pre-

served High Line in Chelsea.

In light of a rising demand for new open space in New York

City, a flurry of projects ranging in scale from the multi-

million dollar High Line to low-budget community centered

projects show the manifold opportunities being offered, or

waiting for discovery, within the dense urban fabric.

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