ABSTRACT
A new period of innovative proposals and collaborative initiatives, from three pocket parks located in an overcrowded Harlem to sophisticated proposals by private philanthropists as in the case of Paley Park in Midtown, embraced micro private financing, community participation and the support of the administration. The unexpected success of these parks led to a proliferation of small-scale projects in the city, which introduced a full spatial experience and sensory stimuli for citizens to enjoy. These tiny proposals initiated a robust alternative to the traditional playground sponsored by the planning department. However, this period of redevelopment of the city's open space is also considered as part of a process of Modernist, postwar design. These plazas, pocket parks and playground designs with rigid geometries and nude materials hardly had passionate defenders and were finally transformed into more conforming designs with easy maintenance and management.
