Walking In The City – The Highline & Washington Square Park

Among the historically and culturally significant landmarks throughout the world, New York City is both a container for these places, and also a significant landmark in itself. Its crowded streets and open parks are familiar and renowned. The city is associated with the hustle and bustle of metropolitan life and a walk through Manhattan can be immersing and reflective.  It seems as if you are just an infinitely small piece of something bigger, like a puzzle piece to an endless puzzle. Such flanerie has the ability to separate an individual from his or her self, simulating an almost outer-body experience. It is through such experiences that many receive enlightenment “which will thus complete his otherwise incomplete identity; satisfy his otherwise dissatisfied existence; replace the sense of bereavement with a sense of life.”

The Highline is a park in Manhattan, crafted from the remains of a railway. Prior to this assignment, I had never been to the Highline before and had set expectations of it. I was surprised to see that it was not your typical park with vast stretches of greenery . Initially, I had thought the park was a little bit chaotic, with sparsely distributed vegetation spread throughout the area. But the more I got to see and experience the Highline, the more I found myself appreciating its beauty and its sense of order. Looking from a more appreciative perspective, I realized that the natural placement of things in the park was indeed beautiful. Everything from the plant-life that has adopted the soil under the tracks as its home, to the narrow pathway of the center section showcased the ability of nature to invade a man-made structure. In this way, the Highline blends the spontaneity of nature with the structure and contrived-nature of an urban setting. Although the plant-life is scattered and dispersed, the linearity of the park and the arrangement of the greenery lend a sense of balance between nature and urbanism.

Due to the linear and isolated nature of the park, walking and engaging in flanerie is almost reflexive. The streets around the park are relatively quiet, a stark contrast from the usual noise-polluted environment of Manhattan. This subtleness of the park allows for the kind of freedom from the constraints and demands of the outside world.

Washington Square Park, a site located in Greenwich Village, is named after the first president of the United States , Washington Square has been a national landmark since its creation in 1871. Washington Square contrasts with the Highline as it is a more conventional park, which does not have the same kind of cooperation between nature and an urban setting, as does the Highline. Though it does not share the union of nature and metropolitan, Washington Square Park is architecturally admirable. The park and its surrounding neighborhood is synonymous with the NYU campus. The layout resembles a web, in which four paths lead to the main square of the park. The giant fountain in the middle of the park and the marble arch that looms over the whole area are two of the city’s most prominent tourist sites. These structures evoke the design influences of European architecture.

Although I pass by the area on a frequent basis, I never get tired of strolling down its paths. There’s always something going on at the park in the afternoons and mornings. I’ve seen protests held by students from the nearby university, and I’ve seen a man get arrested due to said protest. The arts are heavily emphasized, as there are a plethora of street performances ranging from jazz bands to solo pianists scattered throughout the area. Often times, there are aspiring painters attempting to capture the beauty of Washington Square Park on canvas. . Tester contends that “the figure of the flaneur is essentially about-being with others in the modern urban spaces of the city.” This is certainly true in Washington Square Park. Within the confines of the park, an individual becomes “the secret spectator of the spectacle of the spaces and places of the city.”  The individual is allowed to immerse his or herself with what is going around him or her and also develop a sense of self-awareness while being aware of what is going on in the surroundings.. In the case of Washington Square Park, the flaneur is given multiple subjects of which he or she may engage in, in which they may indirectly participate in.

The Highline and Washington Square Park embody different aspects of flanerie. The Highline promotes escapism and the idea of a flaneur achieving a sense of wholeness and satisfaction in an urban setting infused with nature. Washington Square Park embodies the communal aspect of flanerie, in which a flaneur walks in the presence of others in order to develop a sense of self-awareness.