Langone Park As an Open Space
The first city we will be looking at in terms of its geography is Boston, MA. Specifically, we will be looking at Boston’s North End. “The North End As a Palimpsest” by Awa Nyambi, doesn’t necessarily reference the city’s geography, however, we can still look for what factors might relate to Corbusier’s discussion of the planning that brings a city into its tomorrow.
In Corbusier’s a discussion, he makes clear what four things are most important to a city’s planning:
“ 1. We must de-congest the centres of our cities 2. We must augment their density 3. We must increase the means for getting about 4. We must increase parks and open spaces”
- Le Corbusier (348)
One critique of Corbusier’s article is that he doesn’t always fully explain what each of these points has to do with the geometry of a city. Nonetheless, the exhibit that we are focusing on in this case, discusses Nyambi’s observations of the North End’s Langone Park. Langone Park, sitting at the very edge of the city of Boston, is one piece to what Corbusier demands of tomorrow’s city. In context of what Corbusier sees as the purpose of open spaces like Langone park, I think that the park should provide an “immensity of space” (Corbusier 350) which I don’t believe it does. Langone Park does provide enough room to let in much more than just a “meager shaft of sunlight” (Corbusier 350), but it doesn’t provide the kind of space that I think that Corbusier desires. For one, the park is incredibly congested; there’s a children’s play area, a baseball field, several historical monuments, bocce courts, and more. If we are to think about the kind of open space that Corbusier envisions, we’d need Langone Park to be gutted out first. Then, we’d at least have enough open space to allow it serve as somewhat of a factor of what Corbusier is discussing.