Upcoming Excerpts & Thoughts: Port Authority Bus Terminal
By Blair Lorenzo | Wednesday, January 4th, 2017
Contrary to popular belief, yes, writing continues! Hopefully this piece will be finished soon. For now, please enjoy another excerpt, this time on the Port Authority Bus Terminal:
“ To the Port Authority's credit, it commissioned and largely implemented a plan that has made the [Port Authority Bus] Terminal much safer. This included some of the first explicit uses of holistic, urban-conscious design to create deliberately defensive architecture. Sightlines, for example, were opened, blind corners reduced or eliminated, and strong attempts were made to ensure all open areas of the Terminal were busy at all times—all in order to simulate a Jacobsian "eyes on the street"-like effect.
But all of these improvements were a means to a very limited end: making the Terminal safer and more efficient for travelers passing through. Almost no attempt was made to placemake, to transform this highly valuable piece of public property into a public space. ”