Jane Jacobs Atlantic Yards Report Card #7: Parks Are Designed with Desirable Centers? NO

Jane Jacobs Atlantic Yards Report Card #7: Parks Are Designed with Desirable Centers? NO


This is evaluation item #7 (of 47) of the Jane Jacobs Atlantic Yards Report Card

Parks Are Designed with Desirable Centers? NO

Jane Jacobs said that parks should be designed with recognizable interior centers. The Atlantic Yards green space design does not have recognizable centers. Nor do Ratner’s Metrotech or Atlantic Avenue Malls.

JJ Cites: [Probably the most important element in intricacy is centering. Good small parks typically have a place somewhere within them commonly understood to be the center- - - at the very least a main crossroads and pausing point, a climax. P.104 Long strip parks . . dismally unsuccessful. . . Are frequently designed as if they were rolled out of a die stamper. . . What can users make of this? The more they move back and forth, the more they are in the same place. P. 105 (F)or neighborhood parks, the finest centers are stage settings for people. P. 105]

(For more on this subject see Noticing New York’s post: Monday, September 22, 2008, Should a Teardrop be Shed- Considering the Burden?)