National foundation adds Manhattan Square Park to list of spaces at risk ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) - When Manhattan Square Park opened in 1974, it expressed the modernist sensibility of American landscape architect Lawrence Halprin.

But it's taken more than thirty years for people to really appreciate its angular lines and multiple dimensions.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation, a non-profit agency based in Washington D.C., has included Manhattan Square Park on a list of twelve American postwar gardens or landscapes currently facing some kind of threat.

Manhattan Square Park made the national list in part because its architect, Halprin, became one of the premiere landscape architects in the country.

Charles Birnbaum of the Cultural Landscape Foundation says Halprin is as important as Frederick Olmstead, the man who designed Central Park in New York City, Niagara Reservation in Niagara Falls, and Seneca Park in Rochester.

Modern design isn't always inviting to visitors. With its sharp angles and concrete walls, Manhattann Square Park's amphitheatre feels a bit like a bunker.

By putting the Park on the foundation's annual list of under-appreciated parks, Birnbaum has sparked public interest. To reach a wide audience, he struck a deal with one of the country's foremost photography centers.

The collaboration involves The Cultural Landscape Foundation creating the list of spaces and raising money so the George Eastman House can hire photographers to record images of endangered landscapes.

The George Eastman House mounted an exhibition of the photographs that begins a national tour this week. Signboard images of the same show are also crossing the country.

They include pictures of Boston City Hall Plaza, Heritage Plaza in Fort Worth Texas, Parkmerced in San Francisco, and, of course, Rochester's Manhattan Square Park. Rochesterian Rick McKee Hock photographed it.

The five-acre park is undergoing a 7-million dollars renovation. Workers have installed a new playground and enlarged the skating rink. This summer there are plans to restart man-made waterfalls on the western edge.

The newly-renovated skating rink is attracting thousands of visitors a week, according to city officials.

Bringing life to forgotten parks pleases Charles Birnbaum, who was recently described as a kind of Johnny Appleseed of American landscapes. His foundation is already considering next year's list of endangered spaces and ways to capture them on film.
© Copyright 2009, WXXI