Zuccotti Park
Encyclopedia
Zuccotti Park, formerly called Liberty Plaza Park, is a 33000 square feet (3,065.8 m²) publicly accessible park in Lower Manhattan
, New York City
. It is a Privately-Owned-Public-Space (POPS) controlled by Brookfield Properties
. The park was created in 1968 by Pittsburgh-based United States Steel, after the property owners negotiated its creation with city officials, and named Liberty Plaza Park and situated beside One Liberty Plaza
. It is located between Broadway
, Trinity Place, Liberty Street
and Cedar Street. The park's northwest corner is across the street from Four World Trade Center
. It has been popular with local tourists and financial workers.
The park was heavily damaged in the September 11 attacks and subsequent recovery efforts of 2001. The plaza was later used as the site of several events commemorating the anniversary of the attacks. After renovations in 2006, the park was renamed by its current owners, Brookfield Office Properties, after company chairman John Zuccotti
.
In 2011, the plaza became the site of the Occupy Wall Street
protest camp
. During the demonstration, activists were occupying
the plaza and using it as a staging ground for protests throughout the Manhattan Financial District
.
.
The park was one of the few open spaces with tables and seats in the Financial District
. Located one block from the World Trade Center
, it was covered with debris, and was subsequently used as a staging area for the recovery efforts after the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. As part of the Lower Manhattan rebuilding efforts, the park was regraded, trees were planted, and the tables and seating restored.
. It was renamed Zuccotti Park in honor of John E. Zuccotti
, former City Planning Commission chairman and first deputy mayor under Abe Beame and now the chairman of Brookfield Properties, which used private money to renovate the park. Currently, the park has a wide variety of trees, granite sidewalks, tables and seats, as well as lights built into the ground, which illuminate the area.
A sculpture of a seated businessman, Double Check, was removed during the reconstruction period, but was returned in 2006. It was joined by Joie de Vivre, a 70-foot-tall abstract sculpture.
With its proximity to Ground Zero, Zuccotti Park is a popular tourist destination. The World Trade Center cross
, which was previously housed at St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church
, was featured in a ceremony held in Zuccotti Park before it was moved to the the 9/11 Memorial.
and Double Check, a bronze businessman sitting on a bench, by John Seward Johnson II
.
Joie de Vivre, a 70-foot-tall sculpture consisting of bright-red beams, was installed in Zuccotti Park in 2006, having been moved from its previous installation in the Storm King Art Center
. Benjamin Genocchio
, an Australian art critic, commented that the sculpture suited the location, "nicely echoing the skyscrapers around it."
, but the plaza was closed.
Because Zuccotti Park is not a publicly owned space, it is not subject to ordinary public park curfew. New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said on September 28, 2011, that the NYPD could not bar protesters from Zuccotti Park since it is a public plaza that is required to stay open 24 hours a day. "In building this plaza, there was an agreement it be open 24 hours a day," Kelly said. "The owners have put out regulations [about what's allowed in park]. The owners will have to come in and direct people not to do certain things." A spokesperson for Brookfield Properties, the owner of the park, expressed concern: "Zuccotti Park is intended for the use and enjoyment of the general public for passive recreation. We are extremely concerned with the conditions that have been created by those currently occupying the park and are actively working with the City of New York to address these conditions and restore the park to its intended purpose."
On October 6, 2011, it was reported that Brookfield Office Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park, had issued a statement which said, "Sanitation
is a growing concern ... Normally the park is cleaned and inspected every weeknight... because the protestors refuse to cooperate ... the park has not been cleaned since Friday, September 16th and as a result, sanitary conditions have reached unacceptable levels." To protect and clean the park, protesters volunteered to sweep the areas of the plaza and posted signs urging each other to avoid damaging the flower beds.
Starting at roughly 1 a.m. local time on November 15, NYPD began clearing Zucotti Park. After a court order was released allowing them to return, police refused to allow them back in. Later that day, the New York Supreme Court that issued the injunction ruled against allowing protesters to camp or sleep in Zuccotti Park. Filing requests through the Freedom of Information Act several investigative journalists, including Noami Klein, have since uncovered evidence of federal involvement in the November 15th raid, an involvement that is in contravention of the United States Constitution.
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan is the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the City of New York...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It is a Privately-Owned-Public-Space (POPS) controlled by Brookfield Properties
Brookfield Properties
Brookfield Office Properties Inc. is a North American commercial real estate company. Brookfield Asset Management owns fifty percent of its outstanding common shares. The company has its headquarters operations in New York City and Toronto...
. The park was created in 1968 by Pittsburgh-based United States Steel, after the property owners negotiated its creation with city officials, and named Liberty Plaza Park and situated beside One Liberty Plaza
One Liberty Plaza
One Liberty Plaza, formerly the U.S. Steel Building, is a skyscraper in lower Manhattan, New York City, at the location of the former Singer Building . 1 Liberty Plaza is currently owned and operated by Brookfield Properties. The building is tall and 54 floors. It was built in 1973...
. It is located between Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
, Trinity Place, Liberty Street
Liberty Street (Manhattan)
Liberty Street is a street in New York City that stretches east-west from the middle of Lower Manhattan almost to the East River. It borders such sites as One Chase Manhattan Plaza, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, One Liberty Plaza, Liberty Plaza Park, the World Trade Center site, the World...
and Cedar Street. The park's northwest corner is across the street from Four World Trade Center
Four World Trade Center
Four World Trade Center is a skyscraper under construction as part of the new World Trade Center in New York City at 150 Greenwich Street on the east side of Greenwich Street, across from the original location of the Twin Towers that were destroyed during the September 11 attacks...
. It has been popular with local tourists and financial workers.
The park was heavily damaged in the September 11 attacks and subsequent recovery efforts of 2001. The plaza was later used as the site of several events commemorating the anniversary of the attacks. After renovations in 2006, the park was renamed by its current owners, Brookfield Office Properties, after company chairman John Zuccotti
John E. Zuccotti
John E. Zuccotti is an Italian-American businessman who is active in real estate and development in New York City. He is best known as the namesake of Zuccotti Park.-Career:...
.
In 2011, the plaza became the site of the Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters which began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district...
protest camp
Protest camp
Protest camps are physical camps that are set up by activists, to either provide a base for protest, or to delay, obstruct or prevent the focus of their protest by physically blocking it with the camp...
. During the demonstration, activists were occupying
Occupation (protest)
An as an act of protest, is the entry into and holding of a building, space or symbolic site. As such, occupations often combine some of the following elements: a challenge to ownership of the space involved, an effort to gain public attention, the practical use of the facilities occupied, and a...
the plaza and using it as a staging ground for protests throughout the Manhattan Financial District
Financial District, Manhattan
The Financial District of New York City is a neighborhood on the southernmost section of the borough of Manhattan which comprises the offices and headquarters of many of the city's major financial institutions, including the New York Stock Exchange and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York...
.
Creation and early background
The park, formerly called Liberty Plaza Park, was created in 1968 by Pittsburgh based United States Steel in return for a height bonus for an adjacent building at the time of its construction. That building is now known as One Liberty PlazaOne Liberty Plaza
One Liberty Plaza, formerly the U.S. Steel Building, is a skyscraper in lower Manhattan, New York City, at the location of the former Singer Building . 1 Liberty Plaza is currently owned and operated by Brookfield Properties. The building is tall and 54 floors. It was built in 1973...
.
The park was one of the few open spaces with tables and seats in the Financial District
Financial District, Manhattan
The Financial District of New York City is a neighborhood on the southernmost section of the borough of Manhattan which comprises the offices and headquarters of many of the city's major financial institutions, including the New York Stock Exchange and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York...
. Located one block from the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
, it was covered with debris, and was subsequently used as a staging area for the recovery efforts after the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. As part of the Lower Manhattan rebuilding efforts, the park was regraded, trees were planted, and the tables and seating restored.
Post-September 11 reconstruction
On June 1, 2006, the park reopened after an $8 million renovation designed by Cooper, Robertson & PartnersCooper, Robertson & Partners
Cooper, Robertson & Partners is an international architecture and urban design firm headquartered in New York City.Founded originally as Alexander Cooper and Associates by Alex Cooper in 1979, the firm has designed a number of significant planned communities, urban infill, and transit-oriented...
. It was renamed Zuccotti Park in honor of John E. Zuccotti
John E. Zuccotti
John E. Zuccotti is an Italian-American businessman who is active in real estate and development in New York City. He is best known as the namesake of Zuccotti Park.-Career:...
, former City Planning Commission chairman and first deputy mayor under Abe Beame and now the chairman of Brookfield Properties, which used private money to renovate the park. Currently, the park has a wide variety of trees, granite sidewalks, tables and seats, as well as lights built into the ground, which illuminate the area.
A sculpture of a seated businessman, Double Check, was removed during the reconstruction period, but was returned in 2006. It was joined by Joie de Vivre, a 70-foot-tall abstract sculpture.
With its proximity to Ground Zero, Zuccotti Park is a popular tourist destination. The World Trade Center cross
World Trade Center cross
The World Trade Center cross, also known as the Ground Zero cross, is a group of steel beams found amidst the debris of the World Trade Center following the September 11, 2001 attacks which resembles the proportions of a Christian cross.-Background:...
, which was previously housed at St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church
St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, New York
St Peter's Church is the oldest Roman Catholic parish in New York City and part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. The church was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1965. The original church's cornerstone was laid in 1785 and the first...
, was featured in a ceremony held in Zuccotti Park before it was moved to the the 9/11 Memorial.
Sculptures
The park is home to two sculptures: Joie de Vivre by Mark di SuveroMark di Suvero
Marco Polo "Mark" di Suvero is an American abstract expressionist sculptor born Marco Polo Levi in Shanghai, China in 1933 to Italian expatriates. He immigrated to San Francisco, California in 1942 with his family. From 1953 to 1957, he attended the University of California, Berkeley to study...
and Double Check, a bronze businessman sitting on a bench, by John Seward Johnson II
John Seward Johnson II
John Seward Johnson II also known as J. Seward Johnson, Jr. and Seward Johnson is an American artist known for his trompe l'oeil painted bronze statues, and a grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I ....
.
Joie de Vivre, a 70-foot-tall sculpture consisting of bright-red beams, was installed in Zuccotti Park in 2006, having been moved from its previous installation in the Storm King Art Center
Storm King Art Center
The Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York is an open air museum which has extended the concept of a "sculpture garden" to become a "sculpture landscape." Founded in 1960 by Ralph E. Ogden as a museum for Hudson Valley painters, it soon expanded into a major sculpture venue with the...
. Benjamin Genocchio
Benjamin Genocchio
Benjamin Giorgio Genocchio is an Australian-born non-fiction writer and art critic resident in New York who writes for the New York Times. He is the author and editor of seven books.-Education:...
, an Australian art critic, commented that the sculpture suited the location, "nicely echoing the skyscrapers around it."
Occupy Wall Street
On September 17, 2011, the "Occupy Wall Street" protest began using Zuccotti Park as a campground and staging area for their actions. Some of the protesters displayed a placard welcoming visitors to "Liberty Park", an informal return to a version of the park's original name. The organizers had originally planned to occupy One Chase Manhattan PlazaOne Chase Manhattan Plaza
One Chase Manhattan Plaza is a banking skyscraper located in the downtown Manhattan Financial District of New York City, between Pine, Liberty, Nassau, and William Streets. Construction on the building was completed in 1961...
, but the plaza was closed.
Because Zuccotti Park is not a publicly owned space, it is not subject to ordinary public park curfew. New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said on September 28, 2011, that the NYPD could not bar protesters from Zuccotti Park since it is a public plaza that is required to stay open 24 hours a day. "In building this plaza, there was an agreement it be open 24 hours a day," Kelly said. "The owners have put out regulations [about what's allowed in park]. The owners will have to come in and direct people not to do certain things." A spokesperson for Brookfield Properties, the owner of the park, expressed concern: "Zuccotti Park is intended for the use and enjoyment of the general public for passive recreation. We are extremely concerned with the conditions that have been created by those currently occupying the park and are actively working with the City of New York to address these conditions and restore the park to its intended purpose."
On October 6, 2011, it was reported that Brookfield Office Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park, had issued a statement which said, "Sanitation
Sanitation
Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
is a growing concern ... Normally the park is cleaned and inspected every weeknight... because the protestors refuse to cooperate ... the park has not been cleaned since Friday, September 16th and as a result, sanitary conditions have reached unacceptable levels." To protect and clean the park, protesters volunteered to sweep the areas of the plaza and posted signs urging each other to avoid damaging the flower beds.
Starting at roughly 1 a.m. local time on November 15, NYPD began clearing Zucotti Park. After a court order was released allowing them to return, police refused to allow them back in. Later that day, the New York Supreme Court that issued the injunction ruled against allowing protesters to camp or sleep in Zuccotti Park. Filing requests through the Freedom of Information Act several investigative journalists, including Noami Klein, have since uncovered evidence of federal involvement in the November 15th raid, an involvement that is in contravention of the United States Constitution.
External links
- Privately owned public spaces (POPS), as defined and described by New York City.