Bryant Park | Press Coverage

Press coverage of Bryant Park

Media coverage of Bryant Park has included feature articles and highlights in The New York Times, The New York Post, The Boston Globe, New York Magazine, Crain's, The New York Observer, The Washington Post and many others. Regional coverage has also been extensive on radio, television, and the Internet.

BPC maintains a large archive of these files, and this list is just a sample of the press we have received recently.

2,753 empty chairs mark loss of 9/11 victims in haunting Bryant Park memorial: New York Daily News, September 11, 2011; A sea of empty seats, 2,753 in all, flooded the lawn of Bryant Park in waves of loss Sunday. A poignant exhibition featured one vacant folding chair for each person who died at the World Trade Center ten years ago.

Hold On to Your Brie: A Movie-Night Ritual That Starts in a Sprint: New York Times, August 14, 2011; Just before showtime, however, any tensions are released when the audience jumps up and starts hopping and clapping to HBO's traditional theme music, as a promo appears on screen. It is a one-minute boogie whose origins are unclear but that has gone on for at least a decade.

Bryant Park's lost items always returned by eagle-eyed guards on security patrol: New York Daily News, August 3, 2011; The veteran guards pace the park behind the New York Public Library with an eye for items left behind by absent-minded guests - laptops, cell phones, shopping bags, purses.

Foursquare Exec Checks In at Bryant Park for Summer Breakfast Series: DNAinfo, June 28, 2011; Dozens of Midtown tech-lovers checked in to Bryant Park Tuesday morning to check out Foursquare, the location-based social networking platform, which officially surpassed 10 million users last week.

Director Milos Forman Opens Bryant Park Summer Movie Festival: DNAinfo, June 21, 2011; It takes a lot to improve a summer's evening relaxing in front of a movie in Bryant Park. But, at Monday night's screening of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," an appearance by the film's Oscar-winning director, Milos Forman, added an extra treat.

A Touch of France in Bryant Park: The Wall Street Journal, June 1, 2011; Three thousand miles from home, Martial Raissiguier stumbled across the familiar feel of the south of France in the northwest corner of Bryant Park.

A Wild Time in New York City: Migratory birds drawn to city's green spots: The Epoch Times, April 25, 2011; The city's birders flock to the larger tracts of wild habitat like Central Park, Prospect Park, or Jamaica Bay in Queens, but Willow said even in Midtown Manhattan, on the small strip of green known as Bryant Park, a wealth of bird species can be found.

Bushwick's Maria Hernandez Park Getting Bryant Park-like Makeover: New York Daily News, April 4, 2011; Bryant Park Corp. President Daniel Biederman said the rehabilitation of Maria Hernandez Park in Bushwick, Brooklyn, will continue apace, using many of the same techniques that have made Bryant Park one of the most popular urban landscapes in the country.

Bryant Park's New Electrical Station to End Need for Noisy Generators: DNAinfo, March 2, 2011; The Bryant Park Corporation is in the process of securing permission to build a new on-site electrical station that would eliminate the need for renting generator trailers and running wires across walkways to power the park's annual winter ice skating rink and numerous other events.

Inside Art: Brightening the Outdoors: New York Times, January 27, 2011; Two glass kiosks that served as pop-up holiday shops near the ice skaters in Bryant Park might have been dismantled, but instead they have been retrofitted into miniature art galleries.

Bryant Park Corp & 34th Street Partnership Support Park Landscaping & Maintenance: Broadway World, December 21, 2010; New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, New York Restoration Project, Bryant Park Corporation, and 34th Street Partnership present the gift of 74 trees to tornado-torn Maria Hernandez Park in Bushwick.

Breaking Points: For some city workers, lunch hour is not just for eating: New York Post, November 21, 2010; Every day when noon rolls around, the 38-year-old Queens resident sheds his academic adviser cap at Berkeley College and escapes to the southeast corner of Bryant Park to juggle.

The Eternal Spring Tai Chi Program at Bryant Park, New York: Examiner, October 27, 2010; In 2004, Tai Chi Chuan Center started to offer free classes in Bryant Park on every Tuesday and Thursday from the beginning of May through the end of September.

Bryant Park one of US's 'Great Spaces': Metro, October 13, 2010; Bryant Park was named as one of the 10 best "Great Public Spaces" in the nation yesterday by the American Planning Association.

The Best Cities for Recycling: Gardening Gone Wild, August 12, 2010; The most elegant solution for trash and recyclables goes to Bryant Park in NYC.

Latinos make a pitch for French-game petanque: New York Daily News, July 24, 2010; On a hot afternoon last week, the petanque courts on the northwest corner of Bryant Park were all hushed concentration...

Pigeon Poop And Other Misadventures of Funny Writers in Bryant Park: New York Observer, July 22, 2010; Laughs abounded and pigeons circled overhead as the four authors read selections from their books and answered questions as part of the FUNny Writers panel at the Bryant Park reading room.

French Game Draws Melange To New York City Park: NPR, July 21, 2010; In Bryant Park, only a block from Times Square, there is a little corner where people play petanque...

Where Is the Best Throne in New York?: New York Times Blog, July 2, 2010; The public bathroom in Bryant Park could be voted best bathroom in the country.

Tulip-Shaped Trash Cans Arrive in Bryant Park: DNAinfo, June 30, 2010; Bryant Park will soon have more than a hundred trash bins in "botanical-themed" colors and shapes.

Own a piece of the park: Crain's, June 21, 2010; Bryant Park's business improvement district tries some creative fundraising

Artist Struts Her Stuff in Others' Shoes: New York Times, May 11, 2010

Thousands of birds, like the hermit thrush, make a pit stop at NYC parks during spring migration: New York Daily News, May 1, 2010; Earlier this week, naturalist and educator Gabriel Willow spotted one of his favorite birds, an American woodcock, as it hunkered down on vegetation near the Mid-Manhattan Library in Bryant Park. But the next day, the shorebird was gone.

High BIDs: Worldmag, April 24, 2010; The Bryant Park Corporation is one of the best-known and most successful business improvement districts (BIDs), in which a private entity takes over the management of a public space. Biederman took over Bryant Park in 1986, crowding out drug dealers and bringing in movies and restaurants and Broadway music and ice skating to make it one of the biggest and most successful BID ventures.

Sunday in the Park, Feeling Nature's Call: New York Times, April 16, 2010; ...None can compare to the grace, the elegance, the downright untoiletness of the public restroom in Bryant Park. Your first hint is the enormous arrangement of fresh flowers...

Saying Goodbye to Bryant Park Christmas Tree, Decades After Climbing It: New York Times, January 7, 2010; A woman who knew the tree as a yearling returns to see it decades later as the Christmas Tree in Bryant Park.

Holiday on ice: A week's worth of fun, indoors & out: New York Post, December 26, 2009; Work off some of that figgy pudding at The Pond at Bryant Park. Not only is the skating free, the surroundings are glorious.

Ice, Served Two Ways: Plain or Glamorous: New York Times, December 24, 2009; The setting - in one of the city's prettiest parks, between the Grace Building to the north and the old American Radiator Building to the south - is so inherently glamorous that when the Zamboni comes out, accompanied by the lush strains of "You Go to My Head," it feels as though a star has graced the adoring crowd with yet one more curtain call.

A Place Is Better Than a Plan: City Journal, October 19, 2009; Revitalizing urban areas (such as Bryant Park) is best done through small improvements, not grand designs.

Bryant Park offers reading material: Books, magazines available in Manhattan green space: The Baltimore Sun, September 13, 2009; You can picnic in a park, walk in a park or sleep in a park. You can also read in a park, but it is the rare park that provides the reading material for you. One that does is Bryant Park, a little gem of green space in the heart of Manhattan where the skyscrapers provide shade.

In Praise of Bryant Park: The joys of New York's most idyllic public space: Patrol Magazine, July 7, 2009; Perfectly proportioned to give the passing pedestrian or lunching office drone a substantial drink of nature without being large enough to significantly obstruct traffic patterns, Bryant Park works beautifully with the pace of urban life.

Table Tennis in Bryant Park: wnyc, June 10, 2009; Table tennis anyone? That's a question that can now be heard in Bryant Park, where two ping pong tables have been permanently set up.

Young Poets Show a Love and Gift for Language At Poem In Your Pocket Day: New York Sun, April 30, 2009; The Bryant Park Reading Room welcomed many creative students to share poems on the seventh annual citywide Poem in Your Pocket Day

Sun Spots: With Temps in the 80's, Get Ready to (Sun)Bathe!: New York Post, April 25, 2009; The New York Post lists Bryant Park as one of the best places in the city to catch some solar rays.

NYC Fashion Week to move from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center, away from Garment District: USA Today, February 3, 2009; Every year during New York Fashion Week, designers can be seen wheeling racks of clothes in their new collections to the tents at Bryant Park, just blocks from their studios in the garment district.

Bryant Park: A Stunning Urban Garden: Gardening Gone Wild, November 20, 2008; What makes Bryant Park such a jewel is that it feels like a Parisian park transported smack in the middle of traffic jammed, gritty NYC.

NYC Central Park's rival steals the scene: eTurboNews - Global Travel Industry News, October 2, 2008; This is now the talk of the town--a green park right at the heart of midtown Manhattan. Bryant Park, an 8-acre, urban park surrounded by numerous high-rise office towers, retail stores and the New York Public Library, is the latest flavor of the island of Manhattan.

Splendor on the Grass (and Near It): New York Times, September 7, 2008; Bryant Park has come far since it was rescued from urban decay in the 1980s. There's the vast green lawn, the shade of London plane trees, plentiful green chairs and tables you can move as you'd like (try that in the '80s), an outdoor Reading Room, a carousel playing French music and the Manhattan equivalent of a Saharan oasis: public bathrooms so clean and attractive that you'll think they must be a mirage.

Bryant Park Movie Series Perseveres: New York Sun, June 23, 2008; … one outdoor movie series is different than all the others. The Bryant Park Summer Film Festival doesn't take people away from the skyscrapers, but instead lures them into the heart of Midtown, into a park that is encased within the steel and glass of the surrounding real estate. It is, perhaps, the most striking park space in all the city.

Bryant Park Braces for a Tidal Wave of Traffic: New York Times, June 5, 2008; Bryant Park in Midtown may soon confront a fate that only Yogi Berra could have described: It will be so crowded, nobody will go there anymore. Will it all be overrun when the hordes descend? "We don't envision that we'll be in a Yogi Berra situation," Mr. Biederman said.

A passerby's journal of a busy year in Manhattan's Bryant Park: International Herald Tribune, February 28, 2008; In the course of each year, the broad Bryant Park lawn gets remade over and over - from springtime garden and summer theater venue to autumn capital of fashion runways and twinkling winter holiday village. The turf itself, as long as a football field and framed by London plane-tree walkways, gets dug up and replanted from scratch twice a year. It's a changing stage for a cast of thousands, including regular passersby like me.

THIS JUST IN... Free Ice-Skating Returns to Manhattan: Budget Travel Blog, October 30, 2007; Workers out in midtown yesterday afternoon may have been surprised to find Bryant Park, a popular lunchtime retreat, transformed into a scene recalling Will Ferrell's hit comedy, "Blades of Glory."

The Talk of the Town Girl Counter: The New Yorker, September 7, 2007; For the past month, the keepers of Bryant Park have employed a system of electronic sensors to count the number of people using the park's public rest rooms. In September, they're going to test the system at a couple of the park's entrances, with the goal of refining their park-traffic assessments, which they rely upon to measure the health of the park and the success of the various programs they've introduced to lure people there.

A Moist Finale to a Summer of Movies in Bryant Park: New York Times, August 22, 2007; At the drizzling dot of 5 on Monday evening, security guards dropped the barriers to the Bryant Park lawn. Hundreds of people began a slow-motion dash across the lawn for the park's final night of free outdoor movies this summer. By the time "Psycho" started four hours later, about 2,000 people had grabbed a few square feet of grass and the unlimited romance of a city night outdoors.

Arias Alfresco, Siren Accompaniment New York City Opera, Bryant Park: New York Times, August 16, 2007; "You tend to forget how good opera is until you actually hear it," Tony Zertuche, a 36-year-old playwright. He was waiting in a long line in Bryant Park to buy $25 tickets to coming New York City Opera productions.

Magic Wands and Quill Pens: Time Out New York Kids, August, 2007; Bryant Park, Manhattan's summer staple, caters a Saturday afternoon especially for young ones.

New Report Could Boost BIDs: New York Sun, July 26, 2007; Large business improvement districts in New York City increase the value of commercial properties within their borders by 15% on average. Smaller districts, however, have no effect on commercial property values, a new study released yesterday by New York University's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy says.

Work, Unplugged: New York Daily News, July 9, 2007; Tens of thousands of New Yorkers are logging onto free networks offered at parks, coffee shops and other small businesses throughout the city. Some surf for fun, others complete school assignments, but a growing number are at work.

Real Splendor in the Grass: New York Times, July 1, 2007; Prime blanket real estate, a hot property at Bryant Park's summer film festival.

Uniform Stylings by Mother Nature: Fashion FORWARD, May/June, 2007; Bryant Park employees' uniforms needed a facelift, and the inspiration came from the uniquely colored London Plane trees.

Public Parks Landing Private Owners: Los Angeles Times, February 11, 2007; Supported entirely by commercial sponsors and fees, Bryant Park is an ambitious experiment in the private operation of public places, one that is being watched by urban planners and city managers worldwide.

MY NEW YORK Skating on a Gershwin Set, Whatever the Tune: New York Times, December 29, 2006; The New York Times rates The Pond at Bryant Park NYC's best ice skating rink, and "a yearly miracle that materializes on the lawn behind the New York Public Library."

View From the Market Booth: The Wall Street Journal, December 8, 2006; Behind the counters, a group of diverse artisans brave cold to sell at thriving U.S. Fairs

PUBLIC LIVES A Park Cleans Up Its Act (Gum Removal Aside): New York Times, October 20, 2006; The park has come a long way since then, when Mrs. Astor was, as the saying goes, "accosted by a youth" (species: Adolescentis drug-dealeum) and the Rockefeller brothers pitched a fit.

A Resplendent Park Respite, Mosaic Tiles Included: New York Times, April 4, 2006; To call it a bathroom, perhaps, gives insufficient respect to a landmarked 95-year-old building that reopens today in Bryant Park after two months and $200,000 of renovations.

Raising Private Funds To Remake a Public Park: New York Sun, January 26, 2006; If you called Daniel Biederman an urban planner, you'd be right. You'd also be right if you called him a proselytizer for the private sector or an aficionado of New York City's architecture. You'd be right, most of all, if you called him a rehabilitator of neighborhoods.

Tourist Trap Smackdown: The New York Post, November 19, 2005; Slip-sliding away: the Rink at Rockefeller Center vs. Bryant Park ... for our money, the new Bryant Park rink (Sixth Avenue at 42nd Street) has the edge.

Skating in Bryant Park JPG: Metro, October 31, 2005; Skaters took to the ice yesterday at Bryant Park's new rink, called "The Pond."

Splendor in the Grass: The New York Times, October 23, 2005; Ever since the park was renovated 13 years ago, it has been a remarkable space, and one of its most remarkable aspects is that the number of men and women is about equal, a balance that is carefully monitored as a barometer of the park's health.

Bryant Park Forecast: Ice in October: The New York Times, October 6, 2005; The Bryant Park lawn, well known for its pristine grass and the near-perfect bodies that lounge upon it in summer, will soon also be known for the blades gliding across it in winter.

A Park with its Own Library (JPG): The Journal News, May 2004; What was once a broken-down symbol of a city trying to stagger out from under debt, crime and neglect has become a crown sapphire in the heart of Midtown.

The Fall and Rise of Bryant Park: New York Sun, January 21, 2004; Bryant Park's successful privatization is a tribute to a selfless innovation by the public sector – permitting the private sector to step in with resources and operational skills to restore and manage a splendid public space. Most public officials wouldn't have had the courage to let the private sector take over.

A downtown park really can make a difference: Dallas Morning News, November 05, 2003; Bryant Park is a wonderful gift to New Yorkers and visitors alike. The park has been around since the 1850s. But its role never has been more significant than it is today.

Original Penguin Debuts First Retail Store: Daily News Record, November 2003; "We chose this location because Bryant Park area is evolving, with New York Fashion Week located here and other activities…"

Town Square of Midtown: The New York Times; A park transformed from drugs and crime to an after work entertainment oasis

NYC Park Expert Offers a Proven Growth Plan: The Boston Globe; Bryant Park Restoration Corporation's Executive Director, Dan Biederman gives advice on planning for and running a successful park in an urban setting

Send Round the Clowns: Daily News, March 21, 2003; Bryant Park carousel opens for business on the first day of spring with help from Barnum & Bailey clowns

Walker in the Wireless City: The New York Times, November 24, 2002; Bryant Park is transforming into a new kind of urban space because of wireless technology

Top Five Wireless Access Sites: CUE November 11, 2002; Bryant Park is listed as the #2 top wireless access site

Sending a Message in Bryant Park: Crains New York Business, October 28, 2002; Featuring a photo of "NYC 2012" mowed into the Bryant Park lawn to promote New York City's bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics

Leave the Wires Behind: The New York Sun, September 30, 2002; Wireless access in New York City, featuring Bryant Park

A Break from the Grind: The Poughkeepsie Journal, August 8, 2002; Highlights Bryant Park as a day trip excursion

Across From Bryant Park, A Block With Personality: The New York Times, August 4, 2002; Architectural tour of 40th Street's amazing buildings

Celebrating Bryant Park Love: Daily News, July 1, 2002; Bryant Park Restoration Corporation holds a couples event for all those who met, became in engaged or married in Bryant Park

Did you know?

Bryant Park commissioned two custom designed newsstands to complement the park design. They are located North of the park, on the 42nd Street sidewalk.