Ahhh… memories. This is a December 2007 view from the NYU Kimmel Center along Washington Square South right before the redesign construction began which occurred right after Christmas if I recall correctly.
Notice how the trees are barricaded off around the Fountain? I wonder why, as they were just getting ready to chop them down anyway … if only someone knew that their replacements would keep dying, maybe they would have tried harder to keep those 40 year old healthy trees in the park. And also there’s the petanque court (which was not sloped) and “Teen Plaza” which was a separate, elevated area and had a fully functional stage. The tree is there under the Arch. The Fountain had not yet been moved 22 feet east to “align” with the Arch which is the reason the trees were axed, although some question if it is “aligned” now anyway.
It was around this time I moderated a press conference under the Arch about the chopping down of the park trees and the questions around the redesign. It may have even been on this date. So, there you go!
Photo: Jeffrey Bary
Early on in the start of the blog, photos from “J.” Bary were used capturing reconstruction of the park from great views (like this one) and now we know J. was Jeffrey! A bit of trivia. There are a lot of his photos within the site.