Public Spaces in NYC

There's a rapturous look at the Bloomberg Tower at 731 Lexington
in Newsday. Even though the basic exterior of 731 Lex is not that great (it's kinda tacky) in our opinion, Justin Davidson raves about the potential of the inner piazza:

Its heart is a cobbled oval that links 58th and 59th streets, a private driveway disguised as a public piazza called Beacon Court. If it were truly open - if security guards did not track your steps through the premises or prohibit snapshots - it would be a marvelous civic gift.

This made Gothamist wonder about some of the great public spaces that some privately owned office buildings have, like the plaza at IBM or the Sony Building. There's Worldwide Plaza on the West Side, not to mention little nooks and crannies where you can eat your lunch in nice weather. We did a little research and discovered something awesome. The city has maps of these privately-owned public spaces:
- Downtown Manhattan
- Greenwich Village
- Clinton and the Upper West Side
- Central Midtown
- East Midtown
- Upper East Side
- Downtown Brooklyn
- Long Island City

Are there any public spaces you like? And Wired NY on Bloomberg Tower.

Photo of Bloomberg Tower's inner piazza from Newsday

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in Arts & Entertainment on March 23, 2005 9:27 AM

Comments [rss]

Kevin Walsh

I concur with Brianvan. Saturday at Worldwide Plaza at 50th between 8th and 9th, I was confronted by a security goon when I tried taking pictures of the artwork in the public plaza. After a profanity-filled exchange, I went home and drafted a polite letter to the building manager. She responded:

Kevin:

I assume from your email that you were taking a photograph for personal use. In those situations, it would acceptable as the globe is located within a public plaza. However, we do not permit professional photographers.

I apologize if our security asked you not to take a picture. We have had some recent turnover with our security staff, and I will reiterate the policy at tomorrow morning's staff meeting. However, as you mentioned in your email, we do operate at a more "sensitized" level these days and we prefer to err on the side of caution.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

General Manager

Equity Office

527 Madison Avenue, 5th Floor

New York NY 10022

So, there was some measure of satisfaction. But this kind of stuff is always going to be with you if you have a camera in 2005.

www.forgotten-ny.com

Brian Van Nieuwenhoven

The security policies at the One Beacon Court are indeed annoying and selfish. Why, just this past weekend, I tried to get a picture from the outer sidewalk - out on the public street - and was told that I'm not allowed to take pictures! Of course, I disagreed, talked my way through it, and got a few pics anyway. The security guard was initially stern and forbidding, but once I clarified to him that I wasn't going to enter the courtyard to take any pictures, he relented. (He was fairly nice, considering how some guards react if you cross them)

Unfortunately, no amount of talk was going to allow me to cross through the courtyard. I could only look in from the outside; only residents and tenants are allowed in. Not a big loss as there's really nothing there except a quick view upwards - otherwise, it's just a driveway. It's probably best for them to have such a policy, because the place is right across from Bloomingdales and I could imagine that countless pedestrians would try to cut through the courtyard and create traffic problems. Still, though, what a waste of "public space."

sheila

out of 77 spaces in mid-town east, 14 are classified as "hiatus" and 37 are "marginal".

i think those property owners owe the city coffers a refund on whatever tax abatement they got....

soopling

haha. I was just doing research on these places, to find a good place to confront a boyfriend (google yields nothing when you type in "good places to dump a cheating boyfriend", btw.) a park is usually the best, right? but as it was cold that night i settled on one of the public spaces in the trump buildings, which turned out to be an ideal spot.