Urban park
An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (
Depending on size, which varies considerably, common features of municipal parks include playgrounds, gardens, hiking, running, and fitness trails or paths, bridle paths, sports fields and courts, public restrooms, boat ramps, and/or picnic facilities, depending on the budget and natural and human-made features available. Park advocates claim that having parks near urban residents, including within a 10-minute walk, provides multiple benefits.
History
A park is an area of open space provided for recreational use, usually owned and maintained by a local government.
Some early parks include the
An early purpose-built public park, although financed privately, was
The form and layout of Paxton's ornamental grounds, structured about an informal lake within the confines of a serpentine carriageway, put in place the essential elements of his much-imitated design for Birkenhead Park in Birkenhead. The latter commenced in 1843 with the help of public finance and deployed the ideas which Paxton had pioneered at Princes Park on a more expansive scale. Frederick Law Olmsted visited Birkenhead Park in 1850 and praised its qualities. Indeed, Paxton is widely credited[by whom?] as having been one of the principal influences on Olmsted and Calvert's design for New York's Central Park of 1857.[citation needed]
Another early public park, the Peel Park, Salford, England, opened on 22 August 1846.[4][5][6]
United States
Boston Common was purchased for public use grazing cows and as a military parade ground and dump in 1634. It first started to get recreational elements in 1728, arguably making it the first municipal park in the United States and the world, though cow grazing did not end until the 1830s.
Around the country, the predecessors to urban parks in the United States were generally
In The Politics of Park Design: A History of Urban Parks in America, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1982), Professor
In the early 1900s, according to Cranz, U.S. cities built neighborhood parks with swimming pools, playgrounds and civic buildings, with the intention of Americanizing the immigrant residents. In the 1950s, when money became available after World War II, new parks continued to focus on both outdoor and indoor recreation with services, such as sports leagues using their ball fields and gymnasia. These smaller parks were built in residential neighborhoods, and tried to serve all residents with programs for seniors, adults, teens and children. Green space was of secondary importance.
As urban land prices climbed, new urban parks in the 1960s and after have been mainly pocket parks. One example of a pocket park is Chess Park in Glendale, California. The American Society of Landscape Architects gave this park a General Design Award of Honor in 2006.[9] These small parks provide greenery, a place to sit outdoors, and often a playground for children.
All four types of park continue to exist in urban areas. Because of the large amount of open space and natural habitat in the former pleasure grounds, they now serve as important wildlife refuges, and often provide the only opportunity for urban residents to hike or picnic in a semi-wild area. However, city managers or politicians can target these parks as sources of free land for other uses. Partly for this reason, some of these large parks have "friends of X park" advisory boards that help protect and maintain their semi-wild nature.
United Kingdom
There are around estimated 27,000 public parks in the UK, with around 2.6 billion visits to parks each year. Many parks are of cultural and historical interest, with 300 registered by Historic England as of national importance. Most public parks have been provided and run by local authorities over the past hundred and seventy years, but these authorities have no statutory duty to fund or maintain these public parks.[10] In 2016 the Heritage Lottery Fund's State of UK Public Parks reported that "92 per cent of park managers report their maintenance budgets have reduced in the past three years and 95 per cent expect their funding will continue to reduce".[11]
Uses
Parks can be divided into active and passive
Many smaller neighborhood parks are receiving increased attention and valuation as significant community assets and places of refuge in heavily populated urban areas. Neighborhood groups around the world are joining together to support local parks that have suffered from urban decay and government neglect.
A linear park is a park that has a much greater length than width. A typical example of a linear park is a section of a former railway that has been converted into a park called a rail trail or greenway (i.e. the tracks removed, vegetation allowed to grow back). Some examples of linear parks in North America include New York's High Line and the Village of Yorkville Park in Toronto, which won an award from the American Society of Landscape Architects.[12] Parks are sometimes made out of oddly shaped areas of land, much like the vacant lots that often become city neighborhood parks. Linked parks may form a greenbelt.
There is a form of an urban park in the UK (officially called a "recreation ground", but commonly called a "rec" by the public.) and some EU states that have mostly recreation grounds for kids to play within a park, but may also have a duck pond, large grassy zones not meant exclusively for sports, many trees, and several bushy places. When it occurs as a separate facility on its own, without any parkland, at a street corner or by a shop, the play facility is called a playground.
Gallery
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Aerial view of Dublin's St Stephen's Green, showing greenery, paths, and a pond
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The Dinosaurs Valley (reconstructions of prehistoric reptiles) within Silesian Park in Metropolis GZM, Poland
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TheHelsinki, Finland, in 2020
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planetarium, among other attractions
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Bretch Hill and Dover Avenue children's play park, Banbury, in 2010.
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Park „Bulwary” in Polish town Tomaszów Mazowiecki
See also
References
- ^ Ann Shields (November 10, 2014). "The World's 50 Most Visited Tourist Attractions – No. 4 (tie) Central Park, New York City - Annual Visitors: 40,000,000". +Lesiure. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
- ^ "Public Spaces/Private Money". The Trust for Public Land. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
- ^ "Using Trees and Vegetation to Reduce Heat Islands". US EPA. 17 June 2014. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
- ^ Salford City Council: Parks in Broughton and Blackfriars Retrieved on 2008-09-03
- ^ Papillon Graphics' Virtual Encyclopaedia of Greater Manchester: The Campaign for City Parks in Manchester and Salford Archived 2007-09-22 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 2008-09-06
- ^ University of Salford: Peel Park Archived 2008-12-19 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 2008-09-07
- ^ Douglas, Ann, The Feminization of American Culture, 1977, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, pp. 208–213. [1]
- ^ "America's Most Visited City Parks" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-10-15. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
- ^ "ASLA 2006 Professional Awards". asla.org. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
- ^ Layton-Jones, K (2016). "History of Public Park Funding and Management (1820 – 2010) Historic England Research Report 20/2016". research.historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
- ^ "State of UK Public Parks 2016 | The National Lottery Heritage Fund". www.heritagefund.org.uk. 29 November 2016. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
- ^ "ASLA 2012 Professional Awards | Village of Yorkville Park". www.asla.org. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
- ISBN 9781631214097.
Just west of Bellas Artes, the Alameda Central is the largest green space in the center of the city and the oldest public park in the Americas.
- ^ "Three Kings Day in Mexico, a holiday in flux". LA Times Blogs - La Plaza. 6 January 2011.
Consider the scene this week at the Alameda Central, the downtown Mexico City park historians describe as the oldest planned urban green space in the Americas.
Further reading
- Schuyler, David (2015). "Parks in Urban America". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. ISBN 978-0-19-932917-5.