Columbus Circle Compass

[BigMac]

I wanted my fellow WNYers to be among the first to be informed of this proposal:

As can be observed in Stern's New Columbus Circle (http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3466) thread, I have a fondness for the circle and had been following its renovation closely. Recently, in my mind's eye, I saw the circle in a completely different light and was inspired to pursue the idea:

http://www.columbuscirclecompass.com/cccday.jpg

http://www.columbuscirclecompass.com/cccnight.jpg
(Compass Renderings: John P./Original Photos: Polycor)

It has since stayed on my mind, as has the realization of a number of refining aesthetic and historical benefits of such an addition to the circle.

Most people seem either to be highly pleased with the renovated circle, or mildly satisfied but slightly disappointed. Perhaps the fruition of this concept would please both groups.

These renderings are just conceptual and were created mainly as a primer, but if you support the general idea of the Columbus Circle Compass, I have created a website (http://www.columbuscirclecompass.com/) and petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/compass/) for the project. Any feedback is welcome and appreciated, and also any suggestions for potential contacts within New York City government.

Thank you in advance for anything you do to spread the word, and please support the idea by signing the petition, which I will eventually send to the appropriate powers that be.

[MidtownGuy]

I think it's a clever idea BigMac.:)

[ablarc]

Very nice concept.




Moreover, the column casts a shadow. You can always tell the precise bearing of the sun.

You could even install subtle markers that would enable it to tell time (Eastern Standard).

[czsz]

Imagine the ensuing confusion upon discovering the grid isn't perfectly oriented along cardinal directions...

[lofter1]

I like the concept -- and the sundial aspect as well.

[BigMac]

Moreover, the column casts a shadow. You can always tell the precise bearing of the sun.

You could even install subtle markers that would enable it to tell time (Eastern Standard).Very good observation. It would work well in conjunction with the compass ring and make it that much more effective.

[kz1000ps]

This seems like a no-brainer. I love the idea and think it more or less "completes" the circle visually. Good luck drumming up the (financial) support!

[kz1000ps]

FYI, Gothamist has found out about your proposal and has included a link to the site in today's "Extra, Extra."

[lofter1]

It's on curbed today,too ...

At Columbus Circle, A Rose is a Rose? (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2007/03/07/at_columbus_circle_a_rose_is_a_rose.php)

[BigMac]

It's on curbed today,too ...

At Columbus Circle, A Rose is a Rose? (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2007/03/07/at_columbus_circle_a_rose_is_a_rose.php)

Thanks, all.

Now at 47 signatures and going strong.

[BigMac]

I received an email today from the Department of Design and Construction. They have forwarded this recommendation to the Central Park Conservancy as well as Olin Partnership for their consideration!

[ZippyTheChimp]

Way to go, BigMac.

[lofter1]

Congrats ...

Remember that the guys who got the High Line started were just two grass-roots dudes with an idea that took off ...

[antinimby]

Good job BigMac.

From the website, it says:

a large-scale compass rose imprinted on the granite plaza between the benches and central monument

By what method will they get the images onto the surface? Painting? Engraving?

And the night shot shows them lit up, so I'm assuming there'll be some kind of lighting gadgetry as well?

[BigMac]

Good job BigMac.
By what method will they get the images onto the surface? Painting? Engraving?

And the night shot shows them lit up, so I'm assuming there'll be some kind of lighting gadgetry as well?I leave the specific method of impression for the city to decide.

As for the night lighting: that is just a conceptual rendering as is the daytime design, but I can envision each of the four points lit at night in some fashion (perhaps with lights affixed to the same posts that illuminate the monument), thus continuing the compass effect into the evening and adding yet more appeal to Columbus Circle when seen from above.

[pianoman11686]

It's incredible how far a little suggestion like this can go. Without it, the circle looks just a little barren. Now, it'll look complete - a true monument. Great job, BigMac!

[BPC]

Fine idea. Hope it happens.

[antinimby]

Any fear it might get "NIMBYed?"

[lofter1]

I'd think the lighting part of the proposal might be what will create the most uproar -- people have finally gotten a completed Columbus Circle and the thought of digging it up to run new power lines to feed the lighting might make people nuts. Simply cutting the existing stone to insert the medallions could be a less intrusive addition -- although even that might be far more intensive than I imagine (depending on the construction of the existing pavers).

[ablarc]

I'd think the lighting part of the proposal might be what will create the most uproar -- people have finally gotten a completed Columbus Circle and the thought of digging it up to run new power lines to feed the lighting might make people nuts.
You've identified the biggest problem.

Elliptical lasers from afar (TWC, etc.) shaped to yield circular pools of light at destination?

Or how about canning the lights?

[BigMac]

I'd think the lighting part of the proposal might be what will create the most uproar -- people have finally gotten a completed Columbus Circle and the thought of digging it up to run new power lines to feed the lighting might make people nuts. Simply cutting the existing stone to insert the medallions could be a less intrusive addition -- although even that might be far more intensive than I imagine (depending on the construction of the existing pavers).True; the night lighting is secondary for now, but in the rendering, the original idea involved the light coming from an overhead source.

[BigMac]

The idea has reached Mayor Bloomberg!

I received a letter (http://www.columbuscirclecompass.com/nycparks.jpg) from Commissioner Benepe of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation at the Mayor's request reaffirming that, despite potential obstacles, the idea will be discussed with Olin Partnership.

[fioco]

Good News! Your idea is so uniquely suited and contextual to this landmark it's difficult to believe it won't have legs in the long haul. Nonetheless, it was pragmatic for the letter to list the lengthy litany of hoops and obstacles that must be surmounted.

The only major problem that I can envision is funding: Who will pay for this? I I wonder if a map company like Hagstrom would be interested. Also, the New York office of AAA (auto club) is just a block up Broadway (or they used to be). I think this is a great idea that will just take a long time (like many good ideas in New York) to come to fruition. Thank you for your dedicated efforts to pursue this. We all benefit.

[stache]

I have signed on -

[DarrylStrawberry]

I didn't know where to post this, but maybe it will help revive the compass idea at CC as well.

Surface Navigation Help for Subway Riders

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/16/nyregion/17direction.span.jpg
One of the new sidewalk decals designed to help locals and visitors alike find their way in New York City

Photo:Ruby Washington/The New York Times

Article:JAMES BARRON (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/james_barron/index.html?inline=nyt-per)

Published: October 17, 2007

Allison Lanoux is a New Yorker who got lost on the way to a sales call yesterday in Manhattan. Coming out of the subway at 23rd Street and Avenue of the Americas, she walked half a block in the wrong direction — east, not west toward her appointment at Ninth Avenue and 21st Street.

“I didn’t know which way was which,” she said.
It is one of those embarrassing, frustrating, infuriating experiences of everyday life that many New York subway passengers are loath to admit: that disorienting moment when they step onto the street, lost in a city they know — or think they know — perfectly well. Which way is Ninth Avenue, anyway?

Now the city is experimenting with a new way to help people go where they want to go without wasting more steps than they have to. The city and the private business improvement district for the neighborhood around Grand Central Terminal have installed compass-shaped decals on sidewalks, right where riders emerge from heavily used subway stairwells.

The gold-on-black decals are 24 inches in diameter, larger than a large pizza but smaller than a manhole cover. They carry two kinds of information: directions for north, east, south and west, and the names of the nearest streets.

Should the first decals prove to be a hit, city officials hope they can team up with other business improvement districts and propagate the decals in other parts of the city where exiting subway riders could use a guide.

One of the decals that officials showed off yesterday is on 42nd Street near Third Avenue, outside a passageway between a Starbucks and a Foot Locker store that leads to and from the subway. It got mostly good reviews from people who noticed it as they walked by.

“I know where to go, but that doesn’t mean I know which direction I’m facing,” said Kevin Boyle, a student at Borough of Manhattan Community College. “If you can put celebrities’ handprints in the ground, you can tell people where to go.”

City officials hope the decals will end a familiar pedestrian routine of squinting, walking, squinting and maybe turning around. On streets where subways empty out midblock and the street signs at the corner are not readable in the distance, the decals could save time for people like Saul Slotnick.

He walked out of Grand Central yesterday and headed along 42nd Street toward Madison Avenue. He stopped abruptly. He did an about-face and retreated toward Lexington Avenue even though his destination was Brooks Brothers, at 44th and Madison, in the direction he had been going.

“It takes a minute or two to get your bearings, no matter how long you’ve lived here,” he said.

Some pedestrians stepped carefully around the new decals yesterday and said the compass design would help. But Mr. Boyle said the decals were not large enough for people to notice. “It will be the same old thing, everyone rushing out, saying, ‘Where are we?’” he said.

David Garrett, who works in the Starbucks a few steps away, mentioned another concern. “Who’s going to look down during rush hour?” he asked.

The decals, some subway riders said, will make things easier on streets where there are no easily identifiable landmarks and where the drugstore, coffee shop and bank at one end of the block look much like the drugstore, coffee shop and bank at the other end.

“I can’t tell you how many times I come out of the subway wondering which way to go,” said Gene Foltzer, an information technology manager with Pfizer whose office is down the block from the 42nd Street decal.

“Usually, I have to walk half a block to get my bearings, looking at the sky, looking for a landmark, looking for a street sign, and even then you don’t know which way to turn at the corner.”

That street-level confusion is particularly vexing outside the larger stations that have numerous exits. Joann Morales found herself confused when she emerged yesterday from the Times Square station at Broadway and 42nd Street. She was on her way to the big Toys “R” Us store, where she started working this week.

“The street signs are not really that accessible,” she said. “You can’t see them unless you walk down the block.”

Janette Sadik-Khan, the city’s transportation commissioner, said the idea for the compass came from an Upper East Side man who was among about 20 New Yorkers quoted in The New York Times in January 2006 in an article about practical ways to improve the city. The transportation agency approached the Grand Central Partnership about putting decals around subway stations in its area.

Alfred C. Cerullo III, the president and chief executive of the Grand Central Partnership, said the group had committed $15,000 to the project so far.

Ms. Sadik-Khan and Mr. Cerullo appeared yesterday at a news conference beside the decal on 42nd Street near Third with Elliot G. Sander, the executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/metropolitan_transportation_authority/index.html?inline=nyt-org), and Peter S. Kalikow, the board chairman of both the transportation authority and the Grand Central Partnership.

Mr. Sander said that he himself had “gotten lost” coming out of some of the subway stations “in the labyrinthine system.”

“I’m referring to myself as someone who takes the system every day,” he said. But he said the compass on 42nd Street could also guide tourists bound for Grand Central who take the No. 7 train and come out at that exit, which is closer to Third Avenue than it is to Grand Central.

The Grand Central Partnership is running a survey on its Web site (grandcentralpartnership.org (http://grandcentralpartnership.org/)) to sample reaction to the decals. The officials said that if the response was largely positive, they would consider a more permanent kind of directional marker, maybe something set into the sidewalk instead of just pasted on.

Four decals have been installed. Besides the one on 42nd Street near Third, decals have been placed on the west side of Lexington Avenue between 42nd Street and 43rd Street, adjacent to Grand Central; on the south side of 51st Street between Lexington Avenue and Park Avenue; and on the south side of 53rd Street between Madison Avenue and Park Avenue.

Not everyone who walked by the decal on 42nd Street yesterday was enthusiastic.

“Personally, I wouldn’t use it because I’m from New York and I know where I’m going,” said Anna Medina, a paralegal. “When you’re from New York, everyone knows where you’re going. But for tourists, it’s a good idea. New Yorkers always have someone stopping you, ‘Excuse me, ma’am, where’s Third Avenue?’”

Elias E. Lopez contributed reporting.

[BigMac]

Coincidentally, I sent a follow-up email the other day to Olin Partnership after Parks & Recreation and the DDC both forwarded the proposal to them for review.

Regardless of if or when the concept comes to fruition, the Web site will go on for the sake of keeping the idea in the public imagination.

[MidtownGuy]

The decals, some subway riders said, will make things easier on streets where there are no easily identifiable landmarks and where the drugstore, coffee shop and bank at one end of the block look much like the drugstore, coffee shop and bank at the other end.

sad but true.

[Front_Porch]

I guess it's good for tourists, but is it so hard for New Yorkers to remember that Sixth Avenue runs uptown and that even-numbered streets run East?

ali r.
{downtown broker}