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Central Park Mall
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Central Park Mall
40°46′22″N 73°58′17″W / 40.772764°N 73.971437°W
The Central Park Mall is a pedestrian esplanade in Central Park, in Manhattan, New York City. The mall, leading to Bethesda Fountain, provides the only purely formal feature in the naturalistic original plan of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux for Central Park.
The Mall was designed so that a carriage could disgorge its passengers at the south end, then drive round and pick them up again overlooking Bethesda Terrace, whose view of the Lake and Ramble formed the "ultimatum of interest" in Olmsted and Vaux's vision. With no need for redoubling their steps, fashionable New Yorkers, who in the first decades of the park's existence drove through it in their carriages but rarely walked in it, had their chance to mingle with the less affluent, a mix that was considered thoroughly "American" and picturesque enough to be illustrated repeatedly in the watercolors of Maurice Prendergast and Ludwig Bemelmans.
To the east of the Mall, the wisteria pergola parallels the Mall at the top of a slope. It was originally created as a seating area for visitors attending concerts on the Mall. It now provides screening and separation from the Mall for another outdoor concert stage in New York's Central Park, Central Park SummerStage.
Facing onto the Mall near its upper end is the neo-classical half-domed Naumburg Bandshell (designed by William G. Tachau in 1916, built 1921-23); it was named after Elkan Naumburg. It is Central Park's only neo-classical building. A "Ladies' Refreshment Salon", later called the Casino with great improvements by Joseph Urban, stood behind it. The Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, founded in 1905 and the world's oldest, continuous free outdoor classical music concert series take place there as a gift to the public, each summer.
The Naumburg Bandshell replaced Vaux's cast-iron and wooden construction of 1860, where nineteenth-century concerts evolved partly into open-air popular dances as the evenings fell. The bandstand fell into disrepair by 1912, and new designs were invited by the Parks Department at that time. The architectural firm of Carrère and Hastings made the first submission, but the proposal was rejected as blocking views west towards Sheep Meadow. Then Tachau's successful Naumburg Bandshell design was submitted for its location on the east side of the Concert Ground, centrally nestled between the two projecting scenic overlooks, and it was accepted.
The bandshell was allowed to deteriorate by NYC Parks over many years, and then was considered for demolition in 1989. A ground breaking lawsuit, brought by The Coalition to Save the Naumburg Bandshell, saved it in 1993. In early 2021, it was finally repaired by the Central Park Conservancy. This was underwritten with a special NYC funding grant for Central Park made to the C.P. Conservancy, and very generous Naumburg family funding. It reopened, after its repairs, in time for its centennial year celebrations with the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, on June 13, 2023.
Rumsey Playfield, a small venue and bandshell for concerts, is located just east of the Mall. Located southwest of the intersection of Terrace and East Drives, it is operated by City Parks Foundation. Rumsey Playfield is also known as "the SummerStage" for the series of free corporate-sponsored concerts of the same name involving local and national talent that take place there every summer, and is also the site of the televised Friday morning summer concert series for the ABC morning program Good Morning America.
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Central Park Mall
40°46′22″N 73°58′17″W / 40.772764°N 73.971437°W
The Central Park Mall is a pedestrian esplanade in Central Park, in Manhattan, New York City. The mall, leading to Bethesda Fountain, provides the only purely formal feature in the naturalistic original plan of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux for Central Park.
The Mall was designed so that a carriage could disgorge its passengers at the south end, then drive round and pick them up again overlooking Bethesda Terrace, whose view of the Lake and Ramble formed the "ultimatum of interest" in Olmsted and Vaux's vision. With no need for redoubling their steps, fashionable New Yorkers, who in the first decades of the park's existence drove through it in their carriages but rarely walked in it, had their chance to mingle with the less affluent, a mix that was considered thoroughly "American" and picturesque enough to be illustrated repeatedly in the watercolors of Maurice Prendergast and Ludwig Bemelmans.
To the east of the Mall, the wisteria pergola parallels the Mall at the top of a slope. It was originally created as a seating area for visitors attending concerts on the Mall. It now provides screening and separation from the Mall for another outdoor concert stage in New York's Central Park, Central Park SummerStage.
Facing onto the Mall near its upper end is the neo-classical half-domed Naumburg Bandshell (designed by William G. Tachau in 1916, built 1921-23); it was named after Elkan Naumburg. It is Central Park's only neo-classical building. A "Ladies' Refreshment Salon", later called the Casino with great improvements by Joseph Urban, stood behind it. The Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, founded in 1905 and the world's oldest, continuous free outdoor classical music concert series take place there as a gift to the public, each summer.
The Naumburg Bandshell replaced Vaux's cast-iron and wooden construction of 1860, where nineteenth-century concerts evolved partly into open-air popular dances as the evenings fell. The bandstand fell into disrepair by 1912, and new designs were invited by the Parks Department at that time. The architectural firm of Carrère and Hastings made the first submission, but the proposal was rejected as blocking views west towards Sheep Meadow. Then Tachau's successful Naumburg Bandshell design was submitted for its location on the east side of the Concert Ground, centrally nestled between the two projecting scenic overlooks, and it was accepted.
The bandshell was allowed to deteriorate by NYC Parks over many years, and then was considered for demolition in 1989. A ground breaking lawsuit, brought by The Coalition to Save the Naumburg Bandshell, saved it in 1993. In early 2021, it was finally repaired by the Central Park Conservancy. This was underwritten with a special NYC funding grant for Central Park made to the C.P. Conservancy, and very generous Naumburg family funding. It reopened, after its repairs, in time for its centennial year celebrations with the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, on June 13, 2023.
Rumsey Playfield, a small venue and bandshell for concerts, is located just east of the Mall. Located southwest of the intersection of Terrace and East Drives, it is operated by City Parks Foundation. Rumsey Playfield is also known as "the SummerStage" for the series of free corporate-sponsored concerts of the same name involving local and national talent that take place there every summer, and is also the site of the televised Friday morning summer concert series for the ABC morning program Good Morning America.
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