In this Book

summary

New York City is home to some of the most recognizable places in the world. As familiar as the sight of New Year’s Eve in Times Square or a protest in front of City Hall may be to us, do we understand who controls what happens there? Kristine Miller delves into six of New York’s most important public spaces to trace how design influences their complicated lives. 

 

Miller chronicles controversies in the histories of New York locations including Times Square, Trump Tower, the IBM Atrium, and Sony Plaza. The story of each location reveals that public space is not a concrete or fixed reality, but rather a constantly changing situation open to the forces of law, corporations, bureaucracy, and government. The qualities of public spaces we consider essential, including accessibility, public ownership, and ties to democratic life, are, at best, temporary conditions and often completely absent.

 

Design is, in Miller’s view, complicit in regulation of public spaces in New York City to exclude undesirables, restrict activities, and privilege commercial interests, and in this work she shows how design can reactivate public space and public life.

 

Kristine F. Miller is associate professor of landscape architecture at the University of Minnesota.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Title Page, Copyright
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. p. v
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. p. vii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Introduction: What Is Public Space?
  2. pp. ix-xxii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 1. Public Space as Public Sphere: The Front Steps of New York’s City Hall
  2. pp. 1-22
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2. Art or Lunch?: Redesigning a Public for Federal Plaza
  2. pp. 23-44
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3. Condemning the Public in the New Times Square
  2. pp. 45-70
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 4. Bamboozled?: Access, Ownership, and the IBM Atrium
  2. pp. 71-92
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 5. Targeted Publics and Sony Plaza
  2. pp. 93-116
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 6. Trump Tower and the Aesthetics of Largesse
  2. pp. 117-138
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Epilogue: After 9/11
  2. pp. 139-144
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 145-168
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 169-180
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. About the Author
  2. p. 181
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.