Early history In 1686, when the area was still a wilderness, New York's colonial governor,
Thomas Dongan, designated the area now known as Bryant Park as a public space. The city acquired the land in 1822. It was called "Reservoir Square" after the Croton Distributing Reservoir, which was erected on the eastern side of the park site due to its elevated location. In 1853, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations with the New York Crystal Palace, featuring thousands of exhibitors, took place in the park. The
Latting Observatory was also constructed in the park as part of the 1853 Exhibition, and was also burned down in 1856. The square was used for military drills during the
American Civil War, and was the site of some of the
New York City draft riots of July 1863, when the Colored Orphan Asylum at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street was burned down. These included an 1870 plan for new armory for the
7th New York Militia, an 1880 plan for an opera house, an 1893 plan for relocating the
New York City Hall building, and a 1903 plan for a general post office.
Late 19th and early 20th centuries Renaming and library construction (demolished in the 1930s and now The Hippodrome building) In 1884, Reservoir Square was renamed Bryant Park, to honor the
New York Evening Post editor and
abolitionist William Cullen Bryant. This was opposed somewhat by property owners, who wanted to extend the park eastward onto the reservoir site. Nevertheless, by the 1890s, the reservoir was slated for demolition. When the New York Public Library was founded in 1895, its founders wanted an imposing main branch building. The trustees of the libraries chose to build the branch at the eastern end of Bryant Park, along Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, because it was centrally located between the
Astor and
Lenox Libraries, the library's direct predecessors. The architects of the building,
Carrère and Hastings, also planned to convert the western border along Sixth Avenue into a
pedestrian arcade with a flower market, while the central portion of Bryant Park would have housed sculptures and statues. However, these plans were cancelled as a result of opposition.'', installed 1911, includes a bronze statue of
William Cullen Bryant, the park's namesake|left|alt=The reservoir was torn down by 1900, In conjunction with the library's construction, several improvements were made to the park, such as
terrace gardens, public facilities, and
kiosks, as well as a raised terrace adjoining the library on the eastern portion of the park. The NYPL's Main Branch was opened on May 23, 1911.
Infrastructure and further improvements Due to its central location in Midtown Manhattan, several transit lines and infrastructure projects were also built around Bryant Park. The first of these was the
Sixth Avenue Elevated railway, which opened in 1878. The city's
first subway line, now part of the
42nd Street Shuttle, was opened in 1904 by the
Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and ran directly under 42nd Street. In the 1910s, the
Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (now
PATH) also planned to extend their
Uptown Hudson Tubes from
Herald Square to
Grand Central Terminal, with intermediate stations near Bryant Park's northeast and southwest corners, though this plan was never realized. The
Catskill Aqueduct water tunnel was built under Bryant Park in the early 1910s. Once the work was complete, the affected sections of Bryant Park were restored. During
World War I, Bryant Park was frequently used for patriotic rallies, and a "war garden" and a "recreation building" for
Allied soldiers was erected in the park. After the end of the war in 1920, an experimental garden was placed in the park and the recreation building was destroyed. During construction of the
IRT Flushing Line in the 1920s, the northern segment of Bryant Park was partly closed for four years while the subway line was constructed directly underneath. The subway tunnel ran below ground level with a station at the eastern edge of the park, at
Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. During construction, workers took precautions to avoid interrupting the flow of traffic above ground and interfering with preexisting tunnels. while the tunnel under Bryant Park to
Times Square opened the following year. In January 1927, after the section of the Flushing Line under Bryant Park was complete, plans were announced for a restoration of the park's northern section. Over a period of 10 years, about 100 separate plans for Bryant Park's renovation were proposed, but never enacted. During the construction of the replica, part of the park was fenced off. The Dr. Marion Sims and Washington Irving statues were removed; the statues were later found under the
Williamsburg Bridge. The replica was opened to the public in May 1932, charging an admission fee for entry. That November, Manhattan parks commissioner
Walter R. Herrick formally notified Sears that the replica had to be torn down, because he did not approve of its proposed conversion into a
Great Depression relief center. By the next year, the Bicentennial Committee's funds had been exhausted. The replica was torn down in mid-1933. In an attempt to engage unemployed architects, the Architects' Emergency Committee held a competition for the redesign of Bryant Park in 1933. The winning design was submitted by Lusby Simpson, of
Queens. In February 1934, under the leadership of newly appointed parks commissioner
Robert Moses, work was started on Simpson's plan. The renovated park featured a great lawn, as well as hedges and later an iron fence that separated the park from the surrounding city streets. Two entrances each were added from 40th and 42nd Streets. As part of the project, 270 trees were placed around the park. Moses also placed the park's statues along 40th and 42nd Streets so as to block sight lines from these streets. To save money, the project hired workers from the
Civil Works Administration, an unemployment relief program. the park reopened that September 15. Parts of the park were closed in the late 1930s due to transit changes on Sixth Avenue; the elevated was torn down in 1938, A
New Yorker article remarked in 1936 that during the prior 14 years, "Bryant Park has been closed to the public [...] for half that time."
Mid-20th century Public events in Bryant Park were held through the mid-20th century. For instance, in 1944 during
World War II, an aircraft demonstration was held in the park. Outdoor summer concerts in Bryant Park were started in 1948 by Philip Lieson Miller, a musicologist at the New York Public Library. These concerts took place from 12 to 2 p.m. on weekdays from July through September. On October 15, 1969, forty thousand people attended a rally in Bryant Park as part of the nationwide
Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam. Another large event, the
Big Apple Circus, was proposed to be held in Bryant Park in 1978, but parks commissioner
Gordon Davis denied the circus permission to host a show there, since it would have closed off Bryant Park to the public. Plans to build parking garages under Bryant Park also surfaced in the mid-20th century, as a means of relieving parking shortages in Midtown Manhattan. The first such plan was made in 1946 when the city conducted a survey to determine the feasibility of such a garage. Parks commissioner Moses opposed the plan. A parking garage was proposed again in 1958, with plans for 1,200 spaces, though Moses also opposed this proposal. This proposal was backed by the Avenue of the Americas Association. However, though Mayor
Robert F. Wagner Jr. supported the proposal, the
New York City Planning Commission voted against it in November 1961. By the 1960s, Bryant Park had entered a state of deterioration, due to a lack of maintenance and its location in a business district with few nighttime activities. Nevertheless, in 1966, parks commissioner
Thomas Hoving called a meeting to restore the park, noting its degraded condition. By the 1970s, Bryant Park had been taken over by
drug dealers and the
homeless, and was considered a
no-go area by ordinary citizens and visitors. The condition of the park was so bad that in 1973, parks commissioner
Richard M. Clurman threatened to "close Bryant Park and clear it of everybody—until we can get together and make it a place that New Yorkers want it to be." After a man was murdered at the park in 1976, the
New York Times noted that gambling and drinking were commonplace at the park. In an opinion piece in the
New York Daily News, Jerome Gartner, a coordinator for the Bryant Park Steering Committee, stated that the mugging of a
Union Carbide executive in Bryant Park had been quoted as a reason for the company's moving out of New York City. An initial attempt at cleanup was commenced by the Bryant Park Community Fund in the mid-1970s. Free concerts were added in the hope that it would keep out criminals. The initiative was largely unsuccessful, though, and its funding was nearly depleted by 1977. Another initiative, the Bryant Park Steering Committee, was created in 1977 as a partnership between local businesses and the
City University of New York. More
New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers were added, and District Attorney
Robert Morgenthau agreed to process arrests in Bryant Park more quickly. By 1978, public perception of Bryant Park's safety was slightly better than in previous years, though drug dealers still frequented the park after office workers had gone back to work following their lunch breaks. Furthermore, NYPD officers initially declined to arrest drug users who were nonviolent. Starting in 1979, a coordinated program of amenities, including book and flower markets, landscape improvements, and entertainment activities, was initiated by a parks advocacy group called the Parks Council. Though the Parks Council's activities became popular, drug use and small crimes were still common within the park through the early 1980s. After a group of undercover NYPD officers were stationed in the park starting in 1980, they had made 400 drug-related arrests within six months.
Late 20th century Formation of corporations The Bryant Park Restoration Corporation was founded in 1980 by
Dan Biederman, along with
Andrew Heiskell, chairman of
Time Inc. and the New York Public Library. The BPRC immediately brought significant changes to remake the park into a place that people wanted to visit, and instituted a rigorous program to clean the park, remove
graffiti, and repair physical damage. The BPRC also created a private security staff to confront unlawful behavior. Another agency—the Bryant Park Management Corporation, composed of several nearby businesses—was tasked with maintaining the park, spending $525,000 per year to do so. NYC Parks spent an additional $250,000 a year on maintenance, the same amount as when the city had sole control over the park's management. In 1983,
HBO's president,
Frank Biondi, gave Heiskell a $100,000 check just before the company moved into new headquarters at 1100 Avenue of the Americas, adjacent to the park. At the time, that was the largest donation toward Bryant Park by a private corporation.
Renovation In 1983, in an attempt to draw crowds to the park and raise money for continued maintenance, the BPRC proposed leasing Bryant Park from the city, renovating it, and building a café in the park. Restaurateur
Warner LeRoy was to operate the eatery, and he planned to build an , glass café on the park's east side adjacent to the library. In addition, the park would include four smaller food kiosks, a reflecting pool and water fountain, and a dedicated security team. The City Planning Commission also approved the structure the following year. However, the proposed café was met with opposition from the public, as it would obscure the library's rear facade. LeRoy withdrew from the project in 1986 due to this opposition, saying that he feared that the constant reviews of the plan would bring the proposed structure to "mediocrity". The renovation was approved by the
City Art Commission in January 1987, though the restaurant plan had not yet been approved. Following LeRoy's withdrawal from the proposed Bryant Park café, the BPRC created a new plan with multiple smaller restaurant spaces. The spaces would be composed of two smaller pavilions, each tall with an area of , flanking the Bryant memorial next to the library. In September 1987, the plans went to another vote before the City Art Commission, with the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission taking an advisory role. The redesigned restaurant spaces were also approved by the City Art Commission that December, though the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission registered no official position on the matter. A concessionaire for one of the spaces was found in 1988, and the same year, the city turned over duties of Bryant Park's land to BPRC. and a redesign of the park's garden by
Lynden Miller. Biederman worked with
William H. Whyte, a
sociologist whose influence led them to implement two decisions. The other was to lower the park itself, because Bryant Park had been elevated from the street and isolated by tall hedges prior to the 1988 redesign. The BPRC also found that several of the sculptures would need to be repaired, and called on William Cullen Bryant's descendants and other entities to provide funding for the restoration of these sculptures. Landscape architect
Laurie Olin of Hanna/Olin recalls that the design process focused on "the different abilities of people [who] use these spaces...as well as making spaces that people are comfortable being with each other in." The restoration cost $8.9 million, which included $5.7 million of city funding and $3.2 million of private funding. The renovation took place at the same time as the NYPL's expansion of the main branch's
stacks underneath Bryant Park. The project was originally estimated to cost $21.6 million and was to be the largest expansion project in the main branch's history; it entailed building of stacks, which could hold 3.2 million books. with of earth between the park surface and the storage facility's ceiling. The new design received widespread acclaim. Deemed "a triumph for many" by
New York Times architectural critic
Paul Goldberger, the renovation was lauded not only for its architectural excellence, but also for adhering to Whyte's vision. According to Goldberger, Biederman "understood that the problem of Bryant Park was its perception as an enclosure cut off from the city; he knew that, paradoxically, people feel safer when not cut off from the city, and that they feel safer in the kind of public space they think they have some control over." and was described by
Time as a "small miracle". Many awards followed, including a Design Merit Award from Landscape Architecture Magazine, The park has been extolled for its relative calmness and cleanness. Through the 21st century, Bryant Park remained a model of civic renewal that mayors of other cities, such as
Jorge Elorza of
Providence, Rhode Island, sometimes held up as a model to emulate. Bryant Park was described in the media as an example of New York City's 1990s revival. A
New York Times article in 1995 referred to the park as the "Town Square of Midtown" and an "office oasis" frequented by midtown office workers. Further improvements included the installation of two newsstands in 1992, one each at Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Open-air concerts in the summers, which drew thousands of people, were commenced. To lessen infestations of pigeons eating the plants, the BPC started scattering corn kernels that contained the drug
azacosterol, which resulted in many pigeons becoming infertile without any other side effects. Meanwhile, financing for a restaurant in Bryant Park next to the library was finally secured in 1993. The restaurant, Bryant Park Grill, opened in 1995.
21st century (left) and
Bank of America Tower (right) With security largely under the purview of the BPC, corporate control of the park has meant that Bryant Park received passive-recreation amenities, while excluding active sports that might cater to a broader urban public. The BPC added a custom-built carousel in 2002 The Wi-Fi system was subsequently upgraded in 2008. Furthermore, the Pond, a free-admission
ice skating rink, opened in the park in 2005. The park's
public restrooms were renovated in 2006 and in 2017. This was shown by the then-new
Bank of America Tower skyscraper at the park's northeast corner using the address "One Bryant Park", as well as the growing trend of Bryant Park vanity addresses, including 3, 4, 5, and 7 Bryant Park. Such enthusiasm to use the Bryant Park name would have been nonexistent in the 1980s, when the area was described as "the Wild West". New real-estate developments were also built in the park's vicinity starting in the 21st century, which together added over 13,000 new workers to the area immediately surrounding Bryant Park. These included the Bank of America Tower; an expansion to
1095 Avenue of the Americas immediately to the south;
Eleven Times Square a block west of Bryant Park; and 505 Fifth Avenue at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Several hotels were also built, including a conversion of 485 Fifth Avenue at 41st Street, a
Residence Inn by Marriott at Sixth Avenue and 39th Street. By the early 2010s, investors were purchasing buildings around Bryant Park south of 42nd Street as part of a small real estate boom. Rents per square foot in buildings south of 42nd Street had historically been lower than rents in buildings north of 42nd Street. Conversely, 1095 Avenue of the Americas and
452 Fifth Avenue were able to attract comparatively high rental rates despite both being south of 42nd Street. Later in the decade, the area around Bryant Park started growing into a residential neighborhood, with the construction of new developments in the area. Within a two-block radius of the park, or roughly , units routinely sold for millions of dollars. By 2024, the Bryant Park Grill's lease was about to expire. The BPC solicited bids for the restaurant's space, leasing it in January 2025 to a branch of the
Jean-Georges restaurant, which planned to renovate the space for $12 million; the Bryant Park Grill's owner sued the BPC in April 2025 to prevent Jean-Georges from using its space. After a judge granted a temporary injunction, Bryant Park Grill indicated that it would not move out when its lease expired that month, which led to litigation over the restaurant's continued occupancy of its space. == Description ==