The idea of a large public area is an idea whose roots go deep into the heritage of many Americans. From the English feudal manors to colonial New England, communal open space, known as commons, had been infiltrating urban space, providing an array of mutually beneficial, practical uses. Therefore, in the mid-nineteenth century, when the pollution, disease and congestion of the post industrialist New York City had begun escalating, it is easy to see how the proposal of a large communal open space to combat these detriments, in the heart of an urban environment, was approved.

The establishment of Central Park originally had its hand in the realm of public health. However, it is not the public health we would associate with a park today. During the era in which Central Park was proposed – a time before the modern understanding of pathogens – proponents of the park argued that an open green space, such as Fredrick Law Olmsted’s winning design, could act as the “lungs of the city” and filter the air of filthy pollutants and harmful diseases.

Of course, this original purpose has lost almost all of its credibility and the modern day purpose of Central Park is much different. Although the countless ball fields, playgrounds and tracks provide recreational facilities for today’s city dwellers, Matthew Gandy would argue that the park has become more a symbol of New York than anything else. The Great Lawn, the Ramble, that large, lush, open space in the center of Manhattan is something as unmistakably “New York” as the Empire State Building.

One such example of recreation that the park provides is the Central Park Zoo. The Zoo was not originally part of Olmsted’s “Greensward” design, but rather spontaneously evolved as a place to take care of wildlife gifts, which had informally been given to the park. In 1983, the dilapidated informal zoo was closed and completely renovated by the, now, Wildlife Conservation Society which assumed responsibility for the park. Now, an estimated 25 million people visit the Central Park Zoo each year. The renovation of the zoo follows the growing trend in environmental protection and conservation that, not only the park, but the general public has become a part of in the last 30 years.

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Central Park Zoo. Central Park Conservancy.

<http://www.centralparknyc.org/visit/things-to-see/south-end/central-park- zoo.html>

Gandy, Matthew. Concrete and Clay: Reworking Nature in New York City. MIt Presss  MIT press. 2003.

Platt, H. Rutherford. The Ecological City. The University of Massachusetts Press.