Central Park New York City Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Central Park New York City - Essay Example The people of New York started airing their voices on the need of a recreational and a public park. It took the emphasis by a poet and an editor of Evening Post (now the New York post), William Cullen Bryant and an early architect by the name Andrew Jackson Downing. The two followed in demanding how important people of New York needed a public park by 1844. They felt the people of New York needed a lavish scenery similar to Bois de Boulogne in Paris France or Hyde Park based in London, England. It took long years of debate and disagreements about the location on where the park was to be erected before the actual building of the park finally started in 1857. The park’s superintendent Fredrick Law Olmsted and an architect Calvert Vaux won the competition on design to enable them with the expansion of the park under a plan called Greensward Plan. The park’s construction followed the same year and went on through up to the civil war in America until its completion in 1873. The Greensward Plan consisted of designs with 36 bridges, all of which Vaux designed, from a span of the Manhattan schist or granite and an iron cast which is lacy neo-gothic. A number of individuals assumed the responsibility of executing the plan these were, Jacob Wrey Mould an architect, Ignaz Anton Pilat a master gardener, George Waring an engineer and Andrew Hasell Green a politician, mandated with the responsibility of helping Vaux and Olmsted. After winning the contest, they went ahead and acquired the 843 acres of land in the city of New York at the Manhattan center, which is two and a half miles away from 59th and 106th street, and half a mile away from Fifth and Eighth Avenue. This led to the eviction of about 1600 people living in the swampy and rocky terrain as the legal inhabitants of the area. Other buildings brought down included a convent, a school, plants, shrubs, and the people residing in Seneca Village. Mostly African-Americans with an estimated 2700 million peop le in the village inhabited the area with three churches and a school. The members of this village became scattered all over the place and as a result, it led to their community became extinct in that area. The city compensated the people who owned land with an estimated average of $700 per lot of land. However, many of the people residing in the area found the compensation package to be below the property value they surrendered. The city planners chose the place because, of its unsuitable terrain that could not withstand nor allow the erection of commercial buildings. The terrain was rocky with swamps that to be turned into lakes, rivers and a reservoir for the old city. The ancient sculptures underwent improvement, enhancement and eradication to enable the creation of the park in accordance to the style of public grounds in Europe, and an appealing appearance of the countryside nature. To this extent, the planners Olmsted and Vaux came up with a plan, which included four transvers e roads, which enabled the carrying of town traffic below the level of the park. The architectural designs restrictions stated that, they were to be minimal. Only four buildings was the only one found in the original plan of the park. They proceeded to adhere to the plan of the park by choosing the materials used for building and made sure that the integration of the original plan was as