New York’s High Line, a public park elevated over the streets of Manhattan’s west side, has helped to spark an urban revolution.

The High Line reclaimed natural space in New York, a concept that is now being emulated in cities including Chicago, Helsinki, London, Paris and Sydney. 

Amanda Burden, New York’s chief city planner under the Bloomberg administration 

While greening public spaces can improve air quality, absorb carbon and help reduce the urban heat island effect, public space is ultimately about prioritising pedestrians.

In a bid to create life between buildings, New York’s then-chief city planner Amanda Burden set to revitalise the city through a series of public space projects including the High Line and the Brooklyn Waterfront.

In her recent TED talk, How Public Spaces Make Cities Work, Burden listed the benefits of public spaces – spaces designed for the pure enjoyment of residents.

She began by discussing how people generally define cities: buildings, streets, skyscrapers and noisy cabs.

Paley Park, New York

“Cities are fundamentally about people, and where people go and where people meet are at the core of what makes a city work,” she said. “So even more important than buildings in a city are the public spaces in between them. And today, some of the most transformative changes in cities are happening in these public spaces.”

Burden’s drew on her background as an animal behaviourist to study how people in cities use city public spaces. In her first study of Paley Park in midtown Manhattan, she saw that public spaces needed to be flexible and offer comfort and greenery.

“People would come in, find their own seat, move it a bit, actually, and then stay a while, and then interestingly, people themselves attracted other people and ironically, I felt more peaceful,” she said.

Masterplan: Greenpoint Williamsburg Waterfront

Through her observations, Burden found the design of public space design in New York had to be shifted. She referred to the “spartan” inspired spaces that are often preferred by modern architects and developers but generally avoided by people.

“They not only look desolate, they are downright dangerous,” she said. “I mean, where would you sit here? What you do here? But architects love them. They are plinths for their creations. They might tolerate a sculpture or two, but that’s about it.”

“And for developers they are ideal. There’s nothing to water, nothing to maintain, and no undesirable people to worry about. But don’t you think this is a waste?”

Burden noted there are challenges in creating positive public spaces, namely fights with commercial advocates and the high attention to detail required to create them.

“Open spaces in cities are opportunities. Yes, they are opportunities for commercial investment, but they are also opportunities for the common good of the city, and those two goals are often not aligned with one another, and therein lays the conflict,” she said.....Continue Reading

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