Central Park Today

Where exactly does the park stand today? Now a days the statement of the park has come full circle. Just as Olmsted and Vaux intended to create a park to memorialize nature and to demonstrate the need for a public park so that people of New York have a place to go, the park now stands as a testimony to the importance of preserving pieces of lands to be relatively untouched by humans even more so importantly today considering the looming threat of global warming. The park demonstrates that humans can utilize a natural and picturesque landscapes in a way where human technology coexists with nature. If we had applied some of the philosophy and design of Central Park to the rest of the world, perhaps we would not be in the predicament we are now when it comes to global warming. The park still serves as a way of having the individual and social memories manipulate and inform the public memory of the public, but of course that influence is far more interactive and personal. My conclusion is that the park will always serve as a meditative place for New Yorkers and tourists alike, who will then take what they’ve discovered during that meditative process and apply it to their lives outside of the park as I have done. The park demonstrates that memorials are in constant redefining of themselves in order to fit new narratives and historical circumstances.