New York’s Central Park was the first urban landscaped park in the US. It highlights an ideological shift that has occurred towards the notion of ‘space’, from the democratic egalitarianism of the Park’s Olmstedian beginnings (pastoralism) to the free market economy’s advocating for its privatization (utilitarianism). All of this has happened within the deep-rooted discourse of American exceptionalism.

In order to understand who controls and who uses Central Park and  now, as well as for what purpose we consider it to be a social institution, we need to see it as an aspect of the city rather than just a designed landscape.

In 2008, the Chanel Fashion Company rented a portion of Central Park in order to launch newly-designed bag in White Pavilion, designed by Zaha Hadid. Just before the realization of this project, the Parks and Recreation Commissioner announced that their partnership with Chanel would continue the great tradition of bringing world-class cultural offerings to New York City’s parks. From this event, we can draw the conclusion that the market creates the space – even that of this iconic and symbolic social point. As Olmsted had planned Central Park as a democratic experiment intending for it to ‘belong’ to all citizens, we are now beginning to realize how far we actually are from such ideals. We are accustomed to jumping across the border that divides the civil realm and that of corporate interests.

The Park’s privatization seems to have influenced both its actual use as well as its imaginary representation, diminishing the site’s diversity and complexity, and gradually divesting it of its intended social significance.

Olmsted saw Central Park as his own work – “a process of ongoing relationships existing in a physical region and democratic institution by virtue of the “human mixture” within its boundaries; a site where differences of class and race would be erased and the physical and moral corruption of the city would be alleviated”.

We would like to return to this idealised relationship with the users of the park through the monumental and radical expression of inverse space in Manhattan. Omstel’s sociological views have to be reconsidered in the current day. They should be planned out and carefully applied to all of us, the users of the space, equally. This new ideology is the one that we have to realise together.

An interaction with Marija Trifunović
Marija is UX designer and researcher. Beside humanizing technology she is passionate about architecture and photography. After studying in Italy, France and United States, she works and lives in vibrant city of Berlin.