Comments Archive

Our website is a digital space for collaboration about physical space. We invite you to participate  in the creation of knowledge designed to secure greater public use of New York City’s 525 or so POPS, those zoning-created plazas, arcades, and other outdoor and indoor privately owned public spaces. Here is an archive of comments from visitors like you.

Lindsey on 108 Fifth Avenue:
The space is a good spot to sit and rest with benches and nearby food vendors. It also provides some floral aesthetic to the otherwise concrete streetscape surrounding the area. It seems to have improved with the addition of benches, however, these benches provide little opportunity for socializing because they all face away from each other. Although the area is accessible for wheelchairs, there is little space outside of the general walkway paths for wheelchairs to rest.
kahinee on 1 Battery Park Plaza:
I visited 1 Battery park two months back when I was here as a tourist. I had to to visit the ETS office in the building and then take the boat ride to the Liberty island. However, I had to kill two hours till the next ride. I had the perfect spot to rest at 1 battery park and enjoy the silent and beautiful ambiance around me. It is nicely designed for the anyone to either rest or click a nice picture or even have a cup of coffee. The plantations around adds to its beauty.
Zach Cohen on 520 Madison Avenue:
The restaurant menue and make it look as if the seating is part of a private space for patrons only.
Julie Elliot on 388 Greenwich Street:
So I attempted to go to this location and find it. However, it was completely under construction. The place is impossible to get to even if it was buried within the construction, and thus, it was most definitely not public nor accessible. I’m not sure when these pictures were taken, but it was extremely difficult both to get to and to find the location. On the way to the space, I kept seeing open and inviting entrances to public parks, complete with signage and open entrances, that made me want to veer away from going on a hunt for this privately owned public space in favor of going to and running in the public park on the river.
Julie Elliot on 388 Greenwich Street:
So I attempted to go to this location and find it. However, it was completely under construction. The place is impossible to get to even if it was buried within the construction, and thus, it was most definitely not public nor accessible. I'm not sure when these pictures were taken, but it was extremely difficult both to get to and to find the location. On the way to the space, I kept seeing open and inviting entrances to public parks, complete with signage and open entrances, that made me want to veer away from going on a hunt for this privately owned public space in favor of going to and running in the public park on the river.
Anne Sophie Kiepe on 420 Fifth Avenue:
Photo of landscaping and ledges, September 2017.
Anne Sophie Kiepe on 420 Fifth Avenue:
Photo of landcaping and ledges, September 2017.
Anne Sophie Kiepe on 420 Fifth Avenue:
Photo of plaza from west side of the entrance.
Anne Sophie Kiepe on 420 Fifth Avenue:
420 Fifth Ave is a Privately Owned Public Space located on 37th Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway. The plaza is situated at, and serves as, the entrance to the office building it sits in front of. It is owned and maintained by 5th Avenue Condominium company. This space also serves as the entrance to the Girl Scouts offices, which owns several floors of the building. To the left of the plaza’s entrance is a large granite plaque and the company flag. The plaza is a popular and frequently used space for good reason. It is an unusually green and well maintained space. The entrance is decorated with a variety of flowers, hedges, trees, and stepping stones. While there are no moveable chairs or tables, the space consists of scattered ledges along the edges of the plaza, offering a variety of seating to visitors. It is evident that the designer chose to make the steps leading to the building through the plaza’s entrance shallow and long, so that people are unlikely to use them as seating rather than the ledges. The designers utilized plants and trees to effectively create a range of seating options that allowed visitors to feel secluded and part of a natural environment. With no gate or raised ledges, there is very little that separates the sidewalk and passersby from the plaza itself, allowing easy and seamless access for all pedestrians 24 hours a day. It is also a fully handicapped accessible space, and offers plenty of bike racks along the edges of the plaza, available to the public as well as the building’s office staff. The plaza and its landscaping is very well maintained, with a building staff member regularly cleaning the space, taking down the flags, and emptying the ashtray post. The plaza is clearly a rather safe one, with a security camera post monitoring the majority of the space. There are two plaques posted clearly on either side of the entrance, providing detailed information of the space including its dimensions and number of trees. Although the plaque states that moveable chairs are provided, they were absent at the time of site visit in late September 2017. Despite the construction of a building diagonally across from the plaza, the street adjacent to 420 Fifth Ave is relatively quiet for Midtown, with only two car lanes and consistently slow-moving westbound traffic throughout the day. The construction and consistent traffic does not seem to deter visitors from enjoying the plaza as a place to relax. Overall, this space seems to be enjoyed by a variety of individuals who make use of the plaza and its amenities throughout the day.
Philip Miatkowski on 835 Sixth Avenue:
Additional photograph
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