Patterns of Use: Washington Square Park

Washington Square Park is one of the most popular parks in New York City. Its constant flow attracts people from all cultural backgrounds to come together and enjoy this public park. The park has a variety of different people that come and utilize the park daily. Students, artists, office workers and musicians and so on can all be found in this one area. The beauty of the park also attracts many tourists and its simplicity does not become intimidating. The park is surrounded by New York University’s campus and has an arch and beautiful fountain in the middle that goes off in the summer. 

Observation:

1. Thursday: 9pm-10pm

• Weather: Slight rain/drizzle
• People: None

-Thursday night is usually when the weekend starts for most students. Since Washington Square Park is almost always filled with students, on a night like this is was completely empty. It was raining on and off as well, however I believe that even if the weather was decent, the park would still be pretty empty. In one corner of the park was a homeless man with boxes around him for protection. People were walking in and out of the park but not as frequently as they do earlier in the day.

2. Sunday: 5pm-6pm

• Weather: Nice/sunny
• People: Good amount, started to leave once the sun went down

-Sundays are a day spent with family and friends; this was the exact case in the park. The park was filled with people of all ages enjoying the weather and just relaxing. A group of college students were rehearsing for an upcoming play in the middle of the park. The park is the perfect place for them to practice because of all of the open space it has to offer and no real noise constraints. People near by were enjoying this mock performance. There were little kids running around the empty fountain playing with one another. There were people sitting on the benches; reading books, sitting with their dogs and so on. Throughout the day people would be walking in an out of the park ever so often. However once the sun started to go down, people began to leave. The first people to leave were the families that were there with their children. After the families cleared out, the park wasn’t as loud, the little kids yelling slowly faded away and people one by one started to leave. By the end of the hour, it was dark and the park was almost completely empty besides the theater students who were still rehearsing.

3. Monday: 12pm-1pm

• Weather: nice sunny
• People: a lot of people, on benches, in empty fountain, people taking pictures with and of the arch etc.

-Mondays are always a rush for people throughout the city. It’s the first day of the week and everyone has somewhere to go. Since Washington Square Park is in the heart of NYUs campus, the park was filled with students. People were constantly walking in and out of the park, rushing to go where they needed to be. The park from all angles was full as well. People were sitting along the benches as well as inside the fountain. Near the arch, many tourists would come and take pictures of the arch and NYUs campus. Students would be as a group or just sit by themselves and do their work. The fast passed environment kept the park alive. A man was playing the saxophone at one end of the park and another had a food cart selling hotdogs and nuts. Many people were seen walking their dogs in and out of the park. There is a small dog area within the park that most of the dogs would all be. Throughout the hour, the density of people remained constant. Since it was a Monday afternoon, the hype would probably not die down till later on at night. 

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As I observed the park I noticed some few features that reflected was I watched in the video, The Social Life of Small Urban Space by William Whyte. In the video, Whyte discussed how certain people gathered at certain ends of public areas for reasons that could not really be determined; for example, people in love or romantically involved would almost always sit by the fountain area and display their affection. I noticed that the same thing happened in Washington Square Park. When I was observing on Sunday, the fountain was filled with kids and couples were more along the benches, however on Monday, there were no kids in the fountain and many people sitting in the fountain that looked like a couple. The video also talked about how studied showed where there was an open space with chairs, people would move the chairs to accommodate their needs but by the end of the day, the chairs would be exactly where they started out. Since there was nothing in the park that is tangible, I could not relate this exact characteristic yet the same thing applied for types of people. The dog lovers were all near the dog park, students were constantly in and out of the park as well as alongside the fountain, tourists are always by the arch taking pictures and everyone else is on the benches just enjoying what the park has to offer.

Being in the park reminded me of what Jane Jacobs talks about in her book. Washington Square Park is one of the liveliest parks in Manhattan and that probably has to do with the elements Jacobs’s talks about to keep a city alive. Jacob talks about what she thinks keeps the city going, however some of the factors apply to what keep the park going. Jacobs says that high density promotes the welfare of the environment; the park would not be a park unless it had people come and enjoy it. Even when people walk in and out of the park, it still counts as interacting with it. Another aspect Jacob discusses is keeping small businesses alive; by being in the heart of NYUs campus, the park is filled with all kinds of people and talent. It is very easy to strike up a conversation with somewhere there and realize you may have something in common. This desire to keep these businesses alive instead of letting corporations dominate makes it easier for people to interact with one another and adds to the diversity of the park as a whole.

With the different amenities the park has to offer, there is always going to be a constant flow and life that not other park in the city can have. Washington Square Park has always been a monumental park and will always be a monumental park.