Bryant Park was set up as a public space in 1686 by the governor of New York. The Croton Reservoir was built there in 1839 which was fifty feet high and thirty feet thick. In 1846, the space adjacent to the reservoir was designated as a park named Reservoir Square. Then it was renamed Bryant Park in 1884 to honor William Bryant who was the editor of the New York Times and who has used his position as editor to lead the movement to create Central Park. In 1897, the reservoir was torn down and in its place the New York Public Library was constructed. This building built by John M Carrere and Tomas Hastings, enhanced Bryant Park with a terrace behind the library. After 6th Avenue elevated subway cast a “shadow” on the park and caused the park to suffer neglect, the park was redesigned as a Great Depression public works project by Robert Moses. The park had new additions after its redesign: additional hedges and an iron gate. The iron gate separated the park from the rest of the city in attempts to make it more safe and appealing to the public. However, the design was unsuccessful and the park just became even more run down and was in a terrible state by the 1970s. In fact, in 1966 a New York Times article stated that the park was a “disaster area” and that it was a place attractive to “addicts, prostitutes, winos, and derelicts.” (Thompson 21) It had been overtaken by homeless people, prostitutes, and drug dealers. The Bryant Park Restoration Corporation then took contr
ol which had been founded by the Rockefellers, a group of wealthy and important New Yorkers. A re-design and restoration was privately funded by the year 1988 and had begun by the Restoration Corporation with Dan Biederman as the leader. The goal here was to open the park to the city more, or the streets, and also to encourage people to take part in activities going on there. Biederman’s plan was to clean up the park by removing graffiti, to repair plants, and to provide security and safety for the park. His main goal was to fix the parks problems simultaneously instead of piece by piece which were the processes of re-design in earlier years. As 
these plans were underway, the library went under redesign as well. Architects Hanna and Olin worked the project and redesigned the front of the library on Fifth Avenue. The terrace had much of the same problems that the park had. As the restoration grew, the library ended up expanding their stacks of books to under the park ground. Also, there were new entrances issued in the park and they increased the visibility from the street. Two effective additions that Biederman also added to the park were: movable chairs and he decided to lower the park itself. The park was now lowered to nearly street level. It has a “French garden” design. And when it finally opened in 1992 to the public, it drew immense praises. It was considered one of the best urban renewals.
