Statement of the Historic Districts Council
Before the Art Commission

October 14, 2003

Re: Installation of distinctive street lights and pedestrian lights, Central Park South, between Grand Army Plaza and Columbus Circle, Manhattan.
Consent Agenda Item # 21636

The Historic Districts Council is the city-wide advocate for New York’s historic districts and for neighborhoods meriting preservation. HDC appreciates the opportunity to express our concern about the proposed Central Park South lighting scheme. We firmly believe that this project is significant enough to merit the review of the proper city agencies as well as the community boards and community groups that take interest in the aesthetic and historic value of the Central Park and its perimeter.

Central Park South, along with Fifth Avenue, 110th Street/Central Park North, and Central Park West, form more than just the perimeter of Central Park. They, in fact, serve as an extension of the Central Park landscape, as these thoroughfares help ease the transition from the tranquility of the park to the hustle and bustle of the surrounding neighborhoods. They are also historically a well-documented design element of the park. Although electric lights were obviously not planned by the parks progenitors, images of the lighting elements within and surrounding the park are an integral park of the park’s documented history. Thus the style of the lamp poles that line these streets and the atmosphere they produce are vital to the park’s aesthetic and should be carefully considered.

While the Historic Districts Council commends the Central Park Conservancy and the Department of Transportation for removing the inappropriate cobra-head lamp poles along Central Park South, we object to the installation of the M-pole lamp poles, a non-historic style for this street. Historically, Central Park South was lined with the Fifth Avenue-style poles, installed perpendicular to the road. We therefore seriously question the current proposal for the M-poles. In addition to their historic inaccuracy in this location, M-poles provide more intense lighting for the roadbed but little lighting for the sidewalk, necessitating the addition of a pedestrian light fixture attached to the pole. Therefore, the proposed pole is not even a classic “M” configuration, but an altered one – further muddying the historic look of the park perimeter. This may seem a small alteration, but by installing an incorrect historic artifact within a historic setting, we risk the integrity of the historic city and mislead the historic memory. No one would mistake a cobra-head lamp post for an original fixture of Central Park South. On the other hand, M-poles re-write history to make it tidier.

Central Park South, practically, aesthetically, and historically, would therefore be better served by the installation of Fifth Avenue poles, which when installed perpendicular to the road, shed adequate amount of light both in the road and on the sidewalk. We ask for a mock-up of the M-pole and the Fifth Avenue pole along Central Park South to test the level of light that these lamp poles produce. In addition, we hope that the Central Park Conservancy will work towards developing a master plan for the lighting along the perimeter of the park.