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Re: Lady DIANA SPENCER, A Limo And An Underpass: What Happened? Quote: By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS*

Published: May 10, 2005



Washington Square Park, the scruffy spot with an anything-goes tradition, is about to get a perimeter fence and a lock, courtesy of a Parks Department makeover.



Today, the Landmarks Preservation Commission is expected to approve a $16 million redesign, the last step before the 9.75-acre park will be altered in its most significant way since Eleanor Roosevelt helped lead the fight to ban automobile traffic from Washington Square in 1959.



Under the plan, the park's centerpiece fountain would be shifted into precise alignment with the Washington Square Arch as seen from Fifth Avenue. The park's quirky changes in elevation would be leveled off. Two popular dog runs would be moved. Three six-foot-high asphalt mounds, part of an old playground, would be flattened. A large plaza would be replaced by a lawn. And a four-foot-high granite and iron fence would go up along the perimeter, along with gates that would be locked at night.



http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showth...?t=5378&page=2



This crazy scheme was met with vehement opposition from locals, and set off a long bitter battle to try and stop the plans. But the people lost. No surprises there.



Quote: A Lost Fight Over Washington Square Parks Renovation



By JOHN SULLIVAN

DECEMBER 6, 2007, 3:02 PM



It seems appropriate that the renovation of Washington Square Park would involve six years of planning, arguing and fighting. After all, a spot that has played host to marching suffragists, picketing workers and protesting beatniks should not ease into changes without a brickbat or two, even if they are only rhetorical.



But after all the shouting, the citys proposal to shift the parks fountain into direct line with the*Washington Square Arch, add more lawn and spruce up the statues and fixtures finally seems about to move forward. In a decision issued on Monday, a judge dismissed two remaining claims against the renovation plan.*

...

Under the plan, the fountain will shift 23 feet and move into line with the arch. The 9.3-acre park will have more area dedicated to lawns, and the dogs runs will be moved and spruced up.



http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GV/G...SquareArch.htm move it 23 feet to the east, and then re-install the entire thing, just to make it line up with the Arch.



When it was originally built, the fountain was positioned in the exact east-west mid-point of the park. However, it was slightly off a direct alignment with the Arch, and with Fifth Avenue. So what, right? That's what the residents thought too. Why does it all have to line up? What exactly is the point of that? People were seriously not happy.



Quote: Carol Greiser, a former City Council member who had been instrumental in the effort to ban traffic in the park, said the Parks Department had erred by planning the changes, including hiring architect George Vellonakis, while consulting only a select few in the neighborhood.



"He's playing musical chairs with everything in the park," Ms. Greiser said about Mr. Vellonakis's design. "He's moving fountains, he's moving dog runs. It should not be a major objective to align the fountain with the arch. What do you need it lined up for?"





So they went ahead and moved it. Lots of work involved.





But here's the thing. When the work was complete, and the dust settled, people began to realise that, in fact, the newly positioned fountain was not in alignment with the Arch and Fifth Avenue at all!



Quote: Theres been a lot of under-the-radar discussion about whether the Washington Square Park Fountain is actually aligned with the Arch.



This has been a topic of discord since it was first announced a few years back that the Bloomberg Administration intended to move the famous fountain - in its location since the 1870′s and in the exact center of the park in that spot  23 feet east to line up with the Arch at Fifth Avenue. The relocation of the Fountain also led to the destruction of seven of the eight trees that lined the Fountain Plaza*because they were in the way (note:two of the replacement trees are already dying or dead  more on that another day).



... I first published a post on whether the Fountain and Arch were misaligned in August of last year while the Park was still under construction after seeing the above photo. The photographer, J.Bary, later wrote in saying hed watched them meticulously figure out where the center was and that its the angle from which the photo was taken that makes it look unaligned. But when youre on the Fountain Plaza, it does look a bit, um, off.



At the Phase I Grand Opening Ceremony May 28th of this year, I overheard someone from the*NYC Parks Department*say he was surprised that no one had said anything about the Fountain not being aligned with the Arch. *(I dont know that he was confirming this, or just saying that theyd probably gotten some comments like that.) Ive heard other people mention this tho since then, and then, on August 5th of this year, WSP Blog reader named Steve wrote in as follows:



Is anyone ever going to admit that the fountain is now aligned to nothing  not the center of the park as it was before, not the arch and not 5th Avenue? What was the point of moving it?!?!?! It is NOT aligned to either the arch or the avenue.



The only stated reason George Vellonakis has given on the record for moving the Fountain is that it makes a better shot for tourists to take back home with them. Putting that aside as not a very good reason If the Fountain is now not in the center of the park (as it was forover 100 years) and if its not aligned with the Arch what was the whole point?

http://washingtonsquareparkblog.com/...d-to-the-arch/



Lots of people were wondering the same thing:



Quote: I have been looking at the fountain and its alignment since the Park reopened, and, as you have already said, it simply isnt alinged with anything. This past Sunday, I really spent some time looking at the fountain and its alignment. I basically convinced myself that, somehow, my eyes were lying to me, since those responsible for moving the fountain could not possibly have failed to accomplish the stated objective, by failing to align the fountain with the Arch or 5th Avenue, or something. But this blog and the comments already made, have helped me renew my faith in my own eyesite! I am not crazy, the fountain is not aligned with the Arch or anything else! Thank you, fellow bloggers!

http://washingtonsquareparkblog.com/...central-focus/





Admittedly, there are some issues here with the fact that Fifth Avenue does not meet the Arch and the Park at an exact right angle. So, in practice, it would be impossible to have all three, Fifth Ave, the Arch and the Fountain, in perfect alignment. So why declare that this was the intent in the first place?



People are noticing it: the fountain just doesn't line up properly with either the Arch or Fifth Ave...





Quote: (I dont usually post straight-on shots of the Fountain and Arch because the aligning of the Fountain with the Arch at Fifth Avenue just seems a little more crazy as time goes on. However, since its not really aligned and I liked this shot, I left it in.)

http://washingtonsquareparkblog.com/...e-summer-2012/ In 2005, they announced that they intended to move the fountain, to bring it into alignment with the Arch and Fifth Avenue.This crazy scheme was met with vehement opposition from locals, and set off a long bitter battle to try and stop the plans. But the people lost. No surprises there.So in addition to cleaning the arch, adding some lawn, and sprucing up the dog runs, the plan was to completely pull up the fountain,, and then re-install the entire thing, just to make it line up with the Arch.When it was originally built, the fountain was positioned in the exact east-west mid-point of the park. However, it was slightly off a direct alignment with the Arch, and with Fifth Avenue. So what, right? That's what the residents thought too. Why does it all have to line up? What exactly is the point of that? People were seriously not happy.Here's a pic of the old fountain, and Arch, showing that it was indeed offset to the west of the axis of the Arch and Fifth Avenue:So they went ahead and moved it. Lots of work involved.But here's the thing. When the work was complete, and the dust settled, people began to realise that, in fact, the newly positioned fountain was not in alignment with the Arch and Fifth Avenue at all!Yes, indeed, what was the whole point?Lots of people were wondering the same thing:Had there been some kind of confusion or miscommunication? Had they really intended to have the fountain line up exactly with the Arch? Certainly they had. Here is the original proposed plan of how it was all going to look. Perfectly lined up.Admittedly, there are some issues here with the fact that Fifth Avenue does not meet the Arch and the Park at an exact right angle. So, in practice, it would be impossible to have all three, Fifth Ave, the Arch and the Fountain, in perfect alignment. So why declare that this was the intent in the first place?People are noticing it: the fountain just doesn't line up properly with either the Arch or Fifth Ave...So....what is really going on here?