39 articles
Explore squares, parks and the places where public life takes shape.
David Shankbone · CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
The shape of the streets, a history of public assembly and a farmers market explain why Union Square works as more than a patch of greenery.
Visibility, movable seating and the back of a library help explain this Midtown park’s changing role.
rboed* · CC BY 2.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Washington Square’s arch is the most visible landmark, but the ground beneath it and the paths around it hold a longer history.
GualdimG · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Millennium Park turns a complicated urban site into a sequence of places for art, gardens and performance.
User:JeremyA · CC BY-SA 2.5. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
The sculpture in Daley Plaza changes meaning as it is seen against a civic building, open pavement and the movement of downtown Chicago.
King of Hearts · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Boston Common’s long history includes grazing, military occupation, burial and public protest as well as recreation.
4300streetcar · CC BY 4.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Copley Square brings a Romanesque church, a Renaissance-inspired library and a glass tower into one field of view.
Jeffrey M. Vinocur · CC BY 2.5. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Paths, benches and surrounding streets make Rittenhouse Square more than a green rectangle.
Before becoming a landscaped square, this ground held burials and gatherings that remain central to its history.
The Mall’s long views are the result of successive plans, removals, planting campaigns and public uses.
A naval memorial becomes the center of an everyday public circle.
Ben Schumin · CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Meridian Hill Park turns a steep slope into a formal sequence of terraces, stairs and water structures.
Benson Kua · CC BY-SA 2.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
San Francisco’s Union Square combines a public plaza, a commemorative column and infrastructure beneath its surface.
Alamo Square’s familiar house view is only one part of a hilltop neighborhood park.
Grand Park uses terraces and routes to connect different levels of Los Angeles’s Civic Center.
Levi Clancy · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Pershing Square’s successive designs reveal changing ideas about what a downtown public space should provide.
Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Westlake Park turns a small piece of downtown street geometry into public ground.
Cedar777 · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Olympic Sculpture Park connects separated waterfront land by carrying a landscape over active infrastructure.
Steve Morgan · CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Pioneer Courthouse Square replaced parking with a public gathering space shaped by a design competition and civic fundraising.
Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Director Park uses paving, a canopy and a fountain to make a compact downtown gathering space above a garage.
Christian David · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Plaza de Panama makes the buildings around it readable as an ensemble while carrying a history of changing use.
Jackson Square’s composition brings together religious, civic, residential and commemorative buildings from different periods.
Miguel Discart (Photos Vrac) · CC BY-SA 2.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Congo Square connects a particular piece of ground to the survival and transformation of African diasporic culture.
WikTalksmart · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Santa Fe’s central plaza records changing governments, trade routes and ideas about what the city should look like.
Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Main Plaza belongs to a pair of civic spaces that reveal the military, religious and commercial organization of early San Antonio.
R. David Hastings · CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Hemisfair’s present parks sit within a history that includes an inhabited neighborhood, a world’s fair and repeated redevelopment.
Matthew Rutledge · CC BY 2.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Republic Square survived as reserved public land even when its actual use changed from neighborhood gathering place to parking and back again.
Alecconnell · CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Chippewa Square combines an early-nineteenth-century ward, a later monument and buildings that give its edges different public roles.
Forsyth Park is a large, varied public landscape whose famous fountain occupies only its northern portion.
Waterfront Park gives central Charleston a public harbor edge organized around a pier, lawns, shade and fountains.
Bayfront Park connects downtown Miami with Biscayne Bay through a landscape shaped by reclamation, civic use and Isamu Noguchi’s redesign.
Mikerussell at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Campus Martius makes a central piece of Detroit’s street plan function as an everyday public destination.
A downtown square whose changing buildings and surfaces reveal successive ideas about public space.
The meeting of three rivers connects military history, industrial land and a twentieth-century park.
Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
A spiral path and observation mound give a small riverfront park a distinctive spatial sequence.
Vertigo700 at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Civic Center Park links government and cultural buildings through a formal landscape whose circulation and performance spaces continue to change.
w_lemay · CC BY-SA 2.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
The Gateway Arch belongs to a designed landscape whose paths, planting and city connections are essential to understanding the monument.
AgnosticPreachersKid · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Mount Vernon Place combines a vertical monument with four smaller park spaces, creating both a city landmark and places for ordinary use.
Rhododendrites · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized; thumbnails may be cropped.
Waterplace Park is part of a remade urban river system, where landscape design, event programming and changing water levels all affect the experience.
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