Quote:
Originally Posted by alki
So I did a search for the best and worst squares/plazas in the world and guess who made the 10 worst list.........yup:
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interesting that some of the plazas or squares judged the best in the world have little to no landscaping....few to no trees....but are beautiful nonetheless.
I think the biggest problem with pershing sq isn't so much just the design of the area itself but the gaps in the surrounding land, esp the hideous large parking lot at the corner of 5th & Olive.
Union sq in SF isn't any softer or greener in design than PS, & it may have even less landscaping than PS, but it's deemed ok or a success mainly cuz the surrounding area still is vibrant & full of ppl who are on the up & up. iow, the drifters or homeless who've been a mainstay of PS for decades never overtook Union Sq the way they did to PS....& dtla in general.
Nice stores, esp big dept stores, have remained a major part of the area around Union sq, while swapmeets & old shuttered dept stores have been a big part of the story of the area just on the other side of Pershing Sq.
But I would like to see PS improved....with the parking ramps in particular made less dominant on the west & east sides. But I think filling in the land across 5th St with major new devlpt....that hopefully will bring thousands more ppl to the hood 24/7....will have a bigger impact on pershing Sq than just redesigning the park itself.
sometimes an overemphasis on good or poor design.....or a park having too much hardscape, even though the plazas judged a success in Europe are mostly stone or terracotta surfaces, instead of enough trees & grass....makes ppl forget that the human element is the ultimate determinant in the success or failure of a park, plaza or proj.
Critics complain about new devlpt like the fake tuscan apt bldgs of GH palmer or the stucco junk of TCA, but if such projs are successful with the public....& if more ppl end up living & spending time in dtla due to such projs....that will help offset the badness of the architecture.
btw, the stucco pile that is the jia apt bldg in chinatown has around 30 apts yet to be rented up, so it's coming close to being fully booked. The avant apt bldg on fig in south pk also appears to be filling up at a fairly good rate. The TCA designed stucco & multi color extravaganza that is the ava apt bldg in little tokyo seems to have booked up so quickly that I'm not sure if the owner is purposefully omitting units still available for rent in order to make the proj appear more popular than it really is.
Ppl make the difference....they're the glue that holds everything together....such as what is happening at a grand central mkt that is increasingly reflecting a dtla of today instead of the bad old past.
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^ that's offset by the inability of figaro restaurant on broadway to survive, or a good example of how ppl...or a lack of enough of them...really do make a difference. meanwhile, the swapmeets all around figaro's location somehow manage to stay in business, which is a good example of how the presence of another group of ppl, such as owners of swapmeets, their customers, & slumlords....can also make a difference, but not in a good way.
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