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Ralph Bunche Park
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Ralph Bunche Park
Ralph Bunche Park is a small municipal public park in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of New York City, on the west side of First Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Streets. Originally referred to as United Nations Plaza Park, it was named in 1979 for Ralph Bunche, the first African-American to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The park contains four monuments: a sculpture dedicated to Ralph Bunche, a wall inscribed with a biblical quotation from the prophet Isaiah, a staircase named in honor of Natan Sharansky, and a plaque commemorating Bayard Rustin.
The park was dedicated as the city's first Peace Park in 1985. Because of its proximity to the United Nations headquarters and peace theme, the site is a popular site for demonstrations and rallies for peace and other international issues; however, it cannot accommodate major gatherings as it covers less than one-quarter of an acre (1,000 m2).
The site of the park, which is located on the west side of First Avenue between 42nd and 43rd streets (across from the United Nations headquarters), was previously occupied by a three-story garage that abutted the east side of the base of Prospect Tower in Tudor City. The new parkland, including the property for Trygve Lie Plaza on the opposite side of 42nd Street, was acquired by the city as part of the widening of First Avenue to accommodate the United Nations headquarters, which included the construction of the vehicular tunnel that runs under First Avenue from 42nd to 48th streets.
Construction of a park at this location was opposed by William Zeckendorf and his real estate development firm Webb & Knapp, which had planned to construct an airline terminal building on a portion of the block, including the site of the Hospital for Special Surgery (which was planning to move to a new building on the Upper East Side). Zeckendorf called the plans to construct a 50-foot-wide (15 m) park that could not be extended due to the 30-foot-high (9.1 m) cliff supporting the Tudor City buildings "a flagrant misuse of City funds." Webb & Knapp owned the property on First Avenue and planned to use the site part of the airline terminal to provide access for limousines traveling to the terminal and the Queens–Midtown Tunnel, and intended to connect it to a large building on Second Avenue via a tunnel under Tudor City. During that time period, many airlines provided ticketing, baggage, and airport ground transportation services at remote terminals located in Manhattan, including the 42nd Street Airlines Terminal that opened in 1941 across from Grand Central Terminal.
The boundaries of the park were outlined on a map as early as 1947; the land lot has an area of 10,040 square feet (0.23 acres; 0.09 ha), with a frontage of 200.83 feet (61.2 m) and a depth of 50 feet (15.2 m). The stretch of First Avenue above the tunnel and adjacent to the park was renamed "United Nations Plaza" in 1952.
The granite spiral staircase in the park's northwest corner leads to 43rd Street and the Tudor City apartments. It was designed by the firm of Andrews & Clark and replaced a set of stairs that had previously connected Tudor City with First Avenue at 43rd Street. The staircase was built and dedicated in 1948 during construction of the U.N. headquarters and has the famous quotation from Isaiah 2:4: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" incised into its wall. Known as the Isaiah Wall, it was rededicated in 1975 and had the name "Isaiah" added under the final word.
The effort to add the word "Isaiah" to the wall was led by Sam Brown, a former official of the American Jewish Congress. Brown wrote letters to New York City Mayor Abraham Beame and United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim in May 1974 about the omission and was ultimately directed to the city's Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs Administration, which said inscription could be added if he paid for it because city funds for the work were not available. Brown enlisted the assistance of the Indiana Jewish Post and Opinion to help raise funds for the project from its readers in the beginning of 1975. The inscription was added in consultation with the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission. The original inscription consisted of 8-inch-high (20 cm) letters that had been carved into the granite by the A. Ottavino Corporation; the same firm added "Isaiah" to the inscription in September 1975.
On February 5, 1976, the New York City Council Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs passed a bill to name the park "Zion Square." The legislation was sponsored by Councilman Henry Stern and came as a response to United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 that had been recently adopted by the international organization. Opponents of the name change included M. T. Mehdi and Alfred Lilienthal. An editorial in The New York Times called the bill to name the park "an inane response." The following week, it was disclosed that the city's Art Commission and Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs Administration had approved the site in 1973 as the location for a monument to Ralph Bunche, which came as a surprise to both those that supported and opposed naming the park "Zion Square." Officially naming the park would have required approval by the full city council and mayor; the committee never brought the bill to the full city council for a vote.
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Ralph Bunche Park
Ralph Bunche Park is a small municipal public park in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of New York City, on the west side of First Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Streets. Originally referred to as United Nations Plaza Park, it was named in 1979 for Ralph Bunche, the first African-American to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The park contains four monuments: a sculpture dedicated to Ralph Bunche, a wall inscribed with a biblical quotation from the prophet Isaiah, a staircase named in honor of Natan Sharansky, and a plaque commemorating Bayard Rustin.
The park was dedicated as the city's first Peace Park in 1985. Because of its proximity to the United Nations headquarters and peace theme, the site is a popular site for demonstrations and rallies for peace and other international issues; however, it cannot accommodate major gatherings as it covers less than one-quarter of an acre (1,000 m2).
The site of the park, which is located on the west side of First Avenue between 42nd and 43rd streets (across from the United Nations headquarters), was previously occupied by a three-story garage that abutted the east side of the base of Prospect Tower in Tudor City. The new parkland, including the property for Trygve Lie Plaza on the opposite side of 42nd Street, was acquired by the city as part of the widening of First Avenue to accommodate the United Nations headquarters, which included the construction of the vehicular tunnel that runs under First Avenue from 42nd to 48th streets.
Construction of a park at this location was opposed by William Zeckendorf and his real estate development firm Webb & Knapp, which had planned to construct an airline terminal building on a portion of the block, including the site of the Hospital for Special Surgery (which was planning to move to a new building on the Upper East Side). Zeckendorf called the plans to construct a 50-foot-wide (15 m) park that could not be extended due to the 30-foot-high (9.1 m) cliff supporting the Tudor City buildings "a flagrant misuse of City funds." Webb & Knapp owned the property on First Avenue and planned to use the site part of the airline terminal to provide access for limousines traveling to the terminal and the Queens–Midtown Tunnel, and intended to connect it to a large building on Second Avenue via a tunnel under Tudor City. During that time period, many airlines provided ticketing, baggage, and airport ground transportation services at remote terminals located in Manhattan, including the 42nd Street Airlines Terminal that opened in 1941 across from Grand Central Terminal.
The boundaries of the park were outlined on a map as early as 1947; the land lot has an area of 10,040 square feet (0.23 acres; 0.09 ha), with a frontage of 200.83 feet (61.2 m) and a depth of 50 feet (15.2 m). The stretch of First Avenue above the tunnel and adjacent to the park was renamed "United Nations Plaza" in 1952.
The granite spiral staircase in the park's northwest corner leads to 43rd Street and the Tudor City apartments. It was designed by the firm of Andrews & Clark and replaced a set of stairs that had previously connected Tudor City with First Avenue at 43rd Street. The staircase was built and dedicated in 1948 during construction of the U.N. headquarters and has the famous quotation from Isaiah 2:4: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" incised into its wall. Known as the Isaiah Wall, it was rededicated in 1975 and had the name "Isaiah" added under the final word.
The effort to add the word "Isaiah" to the wall was led by Sam Brown, a former official of the American Jewish Congress. Brown wrote letters to New York City Mayor Abraham Beame and United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim in May 1974 about the omission and was ultimately directed to the city's Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs Administration, which said inscription could be added if he paid for it because city funds for the work were not available. Brown enlisted the assistance of the Indiana Jewish Post and Opinion to help raise funds for the project from its readers in the beginning of 1975. The inscription was added in consultation with the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission. The original inscription consisted of 8-inch-high (20 cm) letters that had been carved into the granite by the A. Ottavino Corporation; the same firm added "Isaiah" to the inscription in September 1975.
On February 5, 1976, the New York City Council Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs passed a bill to name the park "Zion Square." The legislation was sponsored by Councilman Henry Stern and came as a response to United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 that had been recently adopted by the international organization. Opponents of the name change included M. T. Mehdi and Alfred Lilienthal. An editorial in The New York Times called the bill to name the park "an inane response." The following week, it was disclosed that the city's Art Commission and Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs Administration had approved the site in 1973 as the location for a monument to Ralph Bunche, which came as a surprise to both those that supported and opposed naming the park "Zion Square." Officially naming the park would have required approval by the full city council and mayor; the committee never brought the bill to the full city council for a vote.
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