Privately owned public spaces have become more common in cities in recent decades due to budget constraints on public authorities and opportunities for private sector involvement. Three types have emerged: privately owned spaces open to the public, business improvement districts that provide services with fees, and parks run by non-profits. New York City has over 500 privately owned public spaces developed through zoning bonuses that allow greater density in exchange for public amenities. While such partnerships can create new public spaces, they also introduce private control and influence over what were formerly purely public domains.

1. Architectural Criticism
Theme parks & Privatization of public spaces

2. PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC SPACES
social and spatial compositions of cities differ considerably across the world, public space
plays a significant role in the life of cities everywhere; for cities to work, there is
undeniable need for public space.
What do we mean by “public space”?
A place that offers access to public without discriminating on a basis of gender, class,
race, etc. Public spaces should be produced to bolster equality by being accessible
places made and managed through inclusive processes.
some examples of public spaces
Plazas, parks, town squares, marketplaces, public commons and malls, public greens,
piers, special areas within convention centers or grounds, sites within public buildings,
lobbies, airports, concourses, or public spaces within private buildings.

3. THE BIRTH OF PRIVATIZED PUBLIC SPACES Cities, public space and change
Nature of “public space” has changed recently with the recent wave of emergent local
and national politics.
Last 30-40 years is a different kind of “public” space that is the product of public-private
partnerships.
• 1st variety
“privately owned
private spaces”
• 2nd variety
• Business Improvements
Districts (BIDs)
• Parks that are administered
and financed primarily by
private associations such as
non-profits or conservancies.
“privately managed
public spaces”
CAUSES: WHAT DRIVES THE
PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC SPACE
The main reason behind the
establishment for privatized public spaces
is economic: First, relative to other costly
needs, The expense of maintaining
public spaces is just too great for
public authorities. Second, private
sector actors see this as an opportunity to
influence how urban space is allocated
and used.
The shrinking and retreat of public authorities enables the private sector to play a greater role in
society. First, contributing to the preservation of public space is good for the social and political
reputation of the private .Second, such contributions are also good for business on several levels:
Corporate social responsibility attracts new consumers as do clean and safe public spaces
adjoining to business districts. Furthermore, there are often regulations regarding land use that
permit businesses to redevelop or expand their properties if they set aside land or build an area
for public space.

4. THE PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC SPACE IN NEW YORK CITY
With a population of near 20 million people, the New York City metropolitan area is the
largest urban environment in the United States.
Efforts to privatize public space – Cause- NEOLIBERALISM- 1970’s to 1980’s- Peak
Neoliberalism --advocates support extensive economic liberalization, free trade, and
reductions in government spending in order to enhance the role of the private sector in
the economy.
•On the one hand, it is because of a shortage of available funds from government. The reality is that
every new park in NYC now needs to finance itself.
•On the other hand, contemporary regulations create an incentive for business to step into this
breach.
1961 New York City instituted a zoning resolution that granted developers contributing to
creation and/or maintenance of public space a bonus floor area ratio of up to 20 percent
of the total floor are of their building.
Covered pedestrian space with significant social amenities
provides up to 12:1 FAR bonus to the developer whereas a
sidewalk widening renders a mere 3:1 bonus. The upshot is
that for every square foot of indoor public space built, a
developer is allowed to construct an additional 12 sq ft of
residential or commercial space on top of the allowed
zoning code.

5. POPS: What is privately owned public space?
1.Spaces owned and operated by private
developers and management firms.
2.An amenity provided and maintained by a
developer for public use, in exchange for
additional floor area.
POPS typically contain functional and visual amenities such as tables, chairs and planting for the purpose
of public use and enjoyment.
Privately Owned Public Spaces are permitted in the City’s high-density commercial and
residential districts and are intended to provide light, air, breathing room and green space to
ease the predominately hard- scape character of the City’s densest areas.
The Zoning Resolution has allowed for several different types of privately owned public space, including
plazas, arcades, urban plazas, residential plazas, sidewalk widening, open-air concourses, covered
pedestrian spaces, through block arcades and sunken plazas.
NYC has 530 POPS, all in Manhattan except 3 in Brooklyn and one in Queens. The program has produced
more than 3.5 million square feet of public space in exchange for additional building area or other
considerations such as relief from certain height and setback restrictions.
The most popular and most visually apparent type of POPS is the outdoor spaces – plazas, residential
plazas and urban plazas, sometimes called “bonus plazas.”

6. Business Improvement Districts (BIDs):
Public/private partnerships that are formed to improve business conditions in a specific
area, specifically in order to attract and retain businesses and generate jobs.
BIDs collect money from constituent members to pay for private security, cleaning, and
maintenance in order to encourage new businesses to open, retain existing businesses,
generate jobs, and draw in shoppers.
New York City is home to the nation's largest, most comprehensive network of Business
Improvement Districts (BIDs) in the country. The City's 66 BIDs annually invest close to $100
million worth of programs and services in neighborhoods.
Union Square BID : Dilemma of public interest
versus private interest (2010)
•On the one hand, it multiple uses include:
•Space of democracy (protests take place there and
petitions along the park on weekends)
•Space of consumption (stands, bookstores, clothing
stores around the square, Christmas market)
•Market place (farmers market three times a week)
•Public square
•Place to play
•National and local symbol- Square

7. On the other hand,
•Maximize benefits for rich and minimize for poor
•Business serving local communities
•Lease more space to restaurants and sell billboard rights to corporate sponsors
•Limit -of vendors
•property values around the park increase
•enforcing market norms against unions, unemployment and welfare recipients.
•Reduce vitality and vibrancy of the space by catering it to one type of person—middle-class or tourist with
a certain standard of purchasing power.
•Reinforce social inequality by excluding certain groups
•Decrease cultural diversity
Similar to POPs, BIDs are exclusively in well-to-do New York City neighborhoods where business
revenues are expected to be high but not in low-income neighborhoods that already lack public
spaces.
An interesting examples of private public
partnership in creating public spaces that
is regarded as the future of public spaces
in New York City : THE HIGH LINE PARK .
The High Line is a public park owned by the
City of New York and operated by Friends of
the High Line.
It is built on an historic freight rail line
elevated above the streets on the West Side
of Manhattan.

8. Founded in 1999 by community residents, Friends of the High Line, a non-profit conservancy
working with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation to make sure the High
Line is “maintained as an extraordinary public space for all visitors to enjoy.”
BEFORE AFTER

9. Founded in 1999 by community residents, Friends of the High Line, a non-profit conservancy working with the
New York City Department of Parks & Recreation to make sure the High Line is “maintained as an
extraordinary public space for all visitors to enjoy.”
In addition to overseeing maintenance, operations, and public programming for the park, Friends of the High
Line works to raise the private funds to support more than 90 percent of the park’s annual operating
budget, and to advocate for the preservation and transformation of the High Line at the Rail Yards.
•OUTCOME:
•About a half-million square feet of new office space and a thousand hotel rooms have been added to
the surrounding neighborhood. The High Line thus far has drawn more than five million visitors greatly
benefiting local restaurants and retail businesses, and creating 12,000 jobs since 2009, an impressive figure
during a period of soaring unemployment nationwide.
•The park has also had a surprisingly low local crime rate, with not a single serious offense reported on the
High Line since it opened.
•Its annual day-to-day operating costs are between $3.5 and $4.5 million dollars, and are entirely funded by the
non-profit Friends of the High Line. Friends of the High Line spends more per acre on its park than is spent on
any other park in the city.
•When the High Line was constructed, the surrounding area received a total of at least $4 billion in private
investment. The City is also expecting that the Park and the businesses nearby will yield $900 million in tax
revenues over the next 30 years.

10. The High Line is, of course, not the only park in the city with private funding. A number of other
public-private partnerships are thriving all over the city—Central Park, Bryant Park, Battery Park
City, Madison Square Park, to name a few—have conservancies that raise money privately to
supplement what the city can spend. Often the conservancies pay for much more than the city.
Central park, New York: Natural thematic park midst of a concrete forest
Central Park is a public urban park at the centre of Manhattan in New York
City, United States.
While it may appear to be a beautiful natural area, be aware that it is entirely
man-made except for the glacier scarred protruding rocks.
•The intent of the park's designers was to present as many varied
landscapes as possible within the given area.
• One encounters lakes, hills, forest, formal gardens, and a vast lawn.
•The various bridges and arches of the park enhance the charm of the place.
•There are several hidden roads that cross the park--only the sound of the
traffic gives them away.

13. Central Park is comprised of 843 acres,
including 150 acres of water, 250 acres of lawn
and 136 acres of woodland.
“The primary purpose of the Park is to provide the best practicable means of healthful
recreation, for the inhabitants of the city, of all classes... It should... present to the eye a
charming rural landscape, such as, unless produced by art, is never found within the limits
of a large town.” -Frederick Law Olmsted
The park contains several natural-looking lakes and ponds that have been
created artificially
PRIVATE ACTIVITIES _CENTRAL PARK:
Extensive walking tracks, bridle paths, two ice-skating rinks, the Central Park
Zoo, the Central Park Conservatory Garden, wildlife sanctuary, a large area
of natural woods,a 106-acre (43 ha) billion-gallon reservoir
with an encircling running track, and an outdoor amphitheater,the
Delacorte Theatre, which hosts the "Shakespeare in the Park" summer
festivals.
In addition there are seven major lawns, the "meadows", and many
minor grassy areas; some of them are used for informal or team sports
and some set aside as quiet areas; there are a number of enclosed
playgrounds for children.

14. Heckster playground Lasker Pool & Rink Wollman Rink Skating area
Delacorte Theatre Great Lawn

15. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir at Central Park, looking North

16. CONCLUSION:
Public spaces are essential aspects of social life and they become repositories of collective
memories and cultural practices. And private ownership does have social outcomes as impact
of citizenship and loss of individual and group liberties but the issue about it is not just private
ownership but control of public spaces.
Both publicly owned and privately owned public spaces tend to encourage use and
access equally but privately owned public spaces also feature elements that control
use and behavior such as surveillance cameras.
On Publicly owned parks, the list of rules are posted with hours of operation, etc. Privately
owned spaces depend on cameras, security guards, and small-scale design features and
corporate logos to control access to spaces—corporate design of public spaces make use of
architectural determinism.
Furthermore, they found that POPs tend to include more corporate images—that drive
consumption.