Union Square and 14th Street's Open Spaces

While 14th Street’s most well-known open space is Union Square, it actually touches five open spaces including two waterfronts: the Hudson River, the Highline, the East River, Stuyvesant Town and Union Square. 14th Street connects these five spaces, but it only offers public access to two, the Highline and Union Square. Entrance is completely blocked from 14th Street to the East River by the Consolidated Edison Company plant and the FDR Drive, and on and on the west side, access to the waterfront is hindered by 11th Avenue. Stuyvesant Town’s open space is restricted to residents and the street wall on its 14th Street frontage limits entry to the green spaces within.

In addition to its current open spaces, the northwest corner of 14th Street and 6th Avenue was once the location of the Palace Garden (Figure 56). According to a 1858 article in the New York Times published the say after Palace Garden opened, it was: “A Place of open air recreation... The grounds—partly those of the old Children’s Nursery and of vacant lots—are tastily decorated with fountains, shrubbery, illuminated lamps, and alcoves...” At the time of its opening, Palace Garden was one of the last large “Pleasure Gardens” to be built in New York City. Popular during the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries these gardens were analogous to our modern-day theme parks and offered a recreational oasis in the middle of the city. While it is difficult to know all the activities that took place there, one can assume there was quite a variety judging from articles describing everything from a Young Man’s Democratic Club rally and demonstration, a circus, a flower show and many concerts. By 1885, the Palace Garden was no longer in existence and only one known image remains of this now lost open space.

Also meant to act as an oasis, but of a very different kind, Stuyvesant Town, the only private open space connected to 14th Street was completed in 1947 and began allowing residents to move into its collection of 8,757 apartments (Figure 57). The nine- to twelve-story brick apartment buildings situated in gardens and parks stretch uptown from 14th to 20th Streets and cross-town from First Avenue to Avenue C. While offering twelve parks to its residents, Stuyvesant Town’s open spaces are virtually closed off to those walking along 14th Street.

As well as the northern barrier created by Stuyvesant Town, the Consolidated Edison Company has blocked access to the easternmost part of 14th Street at Avenue C as a result of post-September 11th security concerns; however since it was built, the FDR Drive has eliminated access to the East River from 14th Street (Figure 58). Historically, the East River served industrial purposes and did not enjoy the activity occurring along the Hudson. In fact, during the 1910s—1940s the Hudson River was home to one of the most active waterfronts in the world. Chelsea Piers designed by Warren & Wetmore and completed in 1910, consisted of nine separate piers running from 12th to 23rd Streets (Figure 59). Pier 56 located at the end of 14th Street on the Hudson River and Pier 54 were both owned by the Cunard / White Star Lines which carried the largest number of passengers of any other ocean liner at the time. While there is a paved path running along this section of the river, it is rarely accessed from 14th Street due to the high amount of car traffic along 11th Avenue.

In the past few years the history of 14th Street’s open spaces has become increasingly important to the public as new designs and changes are being planned for its two most significant spaces: the High Line and Union Square. Given a lot of media and celebrity attention, the High Line, which crosses 14th Street at its intersection with the newly-hip Meatpacking District is poised to become one of the most innovative open spaces in New York City. Originally an elevated rail line bringing goods to west side industry, the High Line has remained unused since 1980 and until recently, faced demolition (Figure 60). As a result of public pressure and Mayoral support, the abandoned rail-line will be converted into an elevated walkway and park spanning twenty-two blocks up the west side.

Unlike the historically industrial High Line, Union Square has acted as a public gathering space since the 1830s. Over its 170 year history, it has been used for commerce, entertainment, political events, labor demonstrations and recreation; however, its name comes from its location as intersection, or union, of two major roads, Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway) and Bowery Road (now Fourth Avenue) (Figure 61). Undergoing a series of transformations throughout its history in response to changing tastes, the construction of the subway and the reclamation of the park from urban decay, today Union Square is one of the most frequented parks in the country. Located in the center of 14th Street, it anchors the transitional streetscape and both contributes to and is affected by the shifting nature of the street.

Union Square developed as a result of the 1811 Commissioners’ plan where the irregular Broadway met the Bowery and created a trapezoidal void in the grid. One of the city planners later said that it “left so small an amount of ground, at the union of those streets and roads, for a public square, which, from that circumstance, they named Union Place.” At the time there were scattered shacks and a potter’s field and so the city decided to “neatly sod and ornament it with trees.” It would be another twenty years before New Yorkers would view it as a usable public space when developer Samuel Bulkley Ruggles leased the land and installed sidewalks in the hopes of developing housing around the square. He convinced the city to change its name to Union Square and by 1839 it was opened as a public park. The original design was a landscaped ellipse with formal pathways radiating out from a central flagpole. As a result of the 1842 creation of the Croton Aqueduct, the flagpole was replaced by a fountain ready to announce the availability of fresh water to city residents.

In 1871 M.A. Kellogg and E.A. Pollard developed new plans for the design of Union Square Park which was then modified by Olmsted and Vaux. The redesign was much more organic than the formal park it was to replace, and the northern end was flattened for Vaux’s Ladies Cottage. Within a decade after Olmsted and Vaux’s redesign, the park had already become a major public gathering place and in 1882 the park hosted the nation’s first Labor Day Parade (Figure 62). Union Square Park was altered again in the 1920s and 1930s in order for subway access to be submerged, but Olmsted and Vaux’s design remained.

In the recent past, the park became home to America’s first Greenmarket, established there in 1974, which still continues today (Figure 63). In 1984 the Parks Department began restoring and renovating the park. The first phase of this work created wheelchair access, installed an automatic irrigation system, added new benches, drinking fountains, subway kiosks and lighting fixtures. In addition, the southern end of the park was converted to a stepped, paved plaza. The current work, and final phase of the Parks Department plan, hopes to remove the Luna Park bar and restaurant from the Pavilion and build in its place an expanded playground. One controversial aspect of this plan is that it calls for the restaurant to be moved to the other side of the pavilion and to plant a line of trees along the plaza it faces. Many argue that this will greatly hinder part of the park’s history as a place for public demonstrations, especially because in 1997 Union Square was designated a National Historic Landmark for its significant role in the American labor movement. This aspect of Union Square as a public gathering space is also significant in very recent history as it became an area of mourning and memorial immediately following the September 11, 2001 attacks (Figure 64).