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Square milieu

Architectural Review, The, July, 1994 by Francesca Morrison, Elizabeth Young

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In the 1950s the square was raised to accommodate the construction of an underground car park. Ramps replaced the original pavements on all four sides -- cutting Pershing Square off from its surroundings. The growth of the Civic Centre in the mid-1960s and the subsequent rise of Bunker Hill as the corporate centre meant that both public and private investment were diverted from the Pershing Square vicinity from that time. It became so run-down, seedy and dangerous that, in an 1980s refurbishment, the Biltmore Hotel turned its back to the square, moving its main entrance from Olive Street to the other side of the block.

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In 1984, the city authorities gave Pershing Square a million-dollar face-lift for the Olympic Games. The effects were short-lived, but this period marks the beginning of a new urban consciousness that led to the production of the 1993 Strategic Plan.

In 1987, an international competition held for the redesign of the square attracted 242 entries. The winning scheme by SITE Projects -- a microcosm of the city in aerial view -- was abandoned when backers deemed it too isolated from the street and surrounding buildings, and too expensive to construct and maintain.

The Square was finally rebuilt through the initiative of the developers Marguire Thomas Partners (MTP). The Pershing Square Property Owners' Association agreed with MTP's proposal to tax themselves to raise $8.5 million dollars, which was added to the $6 million pledged by the Community Regeneration Agency. MTP proposed the Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta and Philadelphia landscape architect Laurie Olin to design the scheme, and started the process with a grant of $1.5 million. The newly constructed Square is the result of a collaborative effort by the developer, the property owners, the City, the CRA and the architects.

As you approach the Square from the west, walking down from the sleek office towers of Bunker Hill and California Plaza, through the chic landscape of marble steps, reflective pools and stainless steel sculptures set in restrained plantings of greys, whites and greens, you see in the distance flashes of singing subtropical colour -- yellow ochre, purple, fuchsia pink, terracotta -- in a grove of palm trees. This is Pershing Square.

From the east, as you leave the noise and bustle of the run-down multi-racial market area and Broadway's theatre land (now bargain basement shopping land) you are drawn to the square by the vibrant colours and stark geometric forms of the architectural elements. From streets overshadowed by tall buildings you come into five acres of public space created specially for meeting, celebrating, contemplating or watching a performance.

From whichever side you approach, Pershing Square is a shock of colour, an eye-catching dynamic mixture of forms, an exhilarating contrast to the glossiness of Bunker Hill and the shabbiness of Broadway.

The clients, many of them adjoining owners, wanted a space that was open, accessible and green. Given that the previous square covered five acres of car parking in a thin layer of traditional park landscape (worn grass, dusty trees and tired shrubs) and was a place where only the dispossessed and homeless would dare venture, it is hardly surprising that Laurie Olin decided to 'open the park up so that you can see in and not feel claustrophobic, but also feel that you are in great bowl surrounded by buildings, yet out of sight of the traffic'.

Square milieu

Architectural Review, The, July, 1994 by Francesca Morrison, Elizabeth Young

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