01 venues of the everyday
Parks and streets are venues for promenades in a city, which in Benjamin’s sense, or in terms of de Certeau as the “art of doing”, are places where basic activities such as walking, playing, jogging, and spectating take place.
These basic acitivities are essentially playful acts enacted on this urban stage set of the everyday.
The interventions take place in two parks on the Lower West Side of Manhattan: Pier 40 at Hudson River Park, and James J. Walker Park in Greenwich Village. They are two of many blanks in the urban fabric of New York City. Unlike historical European capitals, parks, instead of plazas, are primary public open spaces for leisure.
Located just 1000 feet apart, Pier 40 stands as a colossal structure floating on the river, while James J. Walker Park is a recessed void within a dense urban context.
Pier 40, as drawn here on the left-hand side, houses a parking garage on its periphery, a 400 ft by 400 ft sports field at the center, and several smaller courts on its roof deck.
James J. Walker Park comprises multiple outdoor recreational facilities, including a pool, handball alleys, a playground, a baseball field, a bocce court, and a park.
While both are vibrant sports venues now, they have each undergone several adaptations historically:
Pier 40 was constructed in 1962 as a passenger and cargo terminal for Holland America Marine Line. Its ground floor was dedicated to cargo operations, with the central courtyard utilized for loading 300 trucks. Its second floor was used for taxis picking up passengers from the terminal. The structure was later acquired by Hudson River Park in 1998, and the central sports field was built as an interim solution in 2005.
The area of now James J Walker Park was once a burial ground in the 17th Century. The land was acquired by the Park Department in 1895, later renovated in 1972 into a sports park. The open structure of Pier 40 interiorizes a piece of city, while the caged void of James J. Walker Park performs as an urban room in its neighborhood.
At the present moment, both sites are subject to delayed reconstruction and indefinite renovation as their structures deteriorate and their facilities grow out of date due to a general lack of financial support. This situation leaves them suspended in a stagnated moment of minor or major deconstruction, in which the interventions take place.