Square Deal?
Will impending changes to Washington Square Park offerneeded improvements or impose a bogus take on history?

By Alex Ulam

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The redesign of Washington Square Park, one of New York City’s oldest and most popular parks, has ignited a widespread public debate over how best to preserve a historic landscape. For many, the New York City Parks Department’s plan, which includes the reintroduction of gaslight lampposts and Victorian-era benches, will turn the park into a Disney-like historic themed landscape. For the Parks Department’s supporters, however, the redesign is oriented toward addressing the shortcomings of earlier plans and updating the park’s layout to address contemporary needs.

Situated at the heart of New York City’s Greenwich Village, Washington Square Park dates from 1827 and, per square foot, is one of the city’s most heavily used parks. During the mid-nineteenth century, the surrounding neighborhood was the city’s most fashionable address, and the park has been the setting for novels by authors such as Henry James and Edith Wharton. In the twentieth century, its central fountain plaza became a major center for beatnik culture, and singers such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez launched their careers there.

One of the park’s most enduring legacies, however, is the contentious battles that have been periodically waged over its design. Throughout the twentieth century the city attempted to redesign the park many times, but virtually all of the plans were either defeated outright or drastically modified by neighborhood activists.

Now, the Parks Department’s new $16 million plan for Washington Square Park, which is in a city landmark district, may become the first largely unscathed city redesign to be realized in more than a century.