The Parks Department have unveiled their plans for the renvoation of Washington Square Park. I thouroughly approve. The main point is the replacement of the fountain with one along the axis of the Arch. This is a great improvement. The current layout of the Square is from when the road arrangement allowed you to drive through it, through the Arch in fact. When the Square was completely pedestrianised, they merely redirected and turned the former roads into paths, without any general rethink of the Square's arrangement. The new plan orients the park around the Arch's axis, which terminates on the N.Y.U. Catholic Church on Washington Square South. Unfortunately, the Church is a grievous 1970's monstrosity ripe for being torn down and replaced by some of the bright gang from Notre Dame.
The final drawing of the arch by Stanford White
As New York squares go, I'm more partial to Washington Square than most others, though it still has its betters. The chief drawback of the Square and its environs are the inhabitants; chief among them New York University. But the Washington Arch is an admirable, iconic feature. Though of course, there have been better arches in New York, this lasting, permanent one is modest while retaining a certain respectability.
The Square used to have some half-decent gothic revival buildings such as St. Thomas Church (at right) and the Main Building of NYU (below), founded as the University of the City of New York in the early to mid nineteenth century.
Back in school I took a course called New York Writers (which would've more accurately been called New York Writing, as it was about the product not the producers), and it seemed just about half of what we read stumbled upon Washington Square at some point, though I don't think we read the eponymous Henry James work. (Or did we? My memory fails me). Nonetheless, I think it would've been the place to live in early-to-mid nineteenth century New York. As for today, I'd say Murray Hill would be the best Manhattan neighborhood in which to live.
