Existing comment:
Central Park was conceived to provide opportunities for recreation at a time when the word recreation literally referred to the sense of "rebirth" or "renewal" made possible by the opportunity to connect with nature.
The Park was designed to provide the burgeoning population of New York in the 19th century with a reprieve from the stresses of urban life. Nowhere was this vision more perfectly realized than in the breathtakingly beautiful northern section of the Park.
The character of this part of the Park changed dramatically in the first century of its existence, slipping into a severe decline by the 1970s into the early 1980s. This retrospective chronicles the factors leading up to that decline and highlights the remarkable turn-around in the decades since. |