This short writing is about my visit to Battery Park City It focuses on the comparison between Lincoln Center and Battery Park City urban renewal planning.

 

New urbanism it a movement started in the late 80’s and early 90’s were they focus on Jane Jacobs observation on how cities function, evolve and fail. she basically revolutionize the world of architects, planners and politicians with her writing. She saw cities as nonsegregated systems that had their own logic and energy which would change over time in relation to how they were used. She proposed that cities should be built as they been built throughout time with streets, open space, parks and short blocks. The blocks should define the street edges nicely, and people should be able to see the street from their buildings. The lincoln center didn’t adopt any of this new urbanism approach instead the idea ignores the importance of knowing how things work in the city. The center looks different from it’s surrounding, and it takes a large part of the area not allowing any connection between itself and the street or the block. Compare to Lincoln Center Battery Park City really embrace Jane Jacobs approach on how a city should be built. So they changed the previous plan created in the late 60’s with a better one showing a connection with the rest of lower Manhattan. The new plan also contains many principles that makes Battery Park City a great urban environment. Some of those principles was not be self contained ; show a connection with Manhattan grid; reproduce what’s great about New york City neighborhoods ect.