Public Spaces, NY

There are no perfect public spaces. Public space is constantly changing, shifting, never quite fixed. It is formed by laws, by regulations, by private ownership, and by city management. Public spaces are influenced both by the people who oversee them and by those who use them. And because of this, public spaces are never neutral.

In Public Spaces, NY, Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample document and analyze Manhattan’s parks, streets, community gardens, privately owned public spaces, recreation areas, waterfronts, and cemeteries. Their book seeks to understand their design, construction, and management, and provides detailed drawings of both the spaces themselves and speculative illustrations about how the public uses the spaces. By examining how public spaces facilitate or hinder inclusion, and by detailing the conflicts and negotiations they provoke, this book creates a discourse to reimagine the future of public life in the United States’ densest city.

A sequel to Vacant Spaces, NY (published in 2021), Public Spaces, NY invites an imagination of a more inclusive, equitable vision for the shared urban spaces we all navigate.