Bryant Park

I visited Bryant Park recently, and sat with a drink from Starbucks while enjoying the people watching.  Lots of men and women walking, talking on their phones, and to each other, coming from work, going to work, and eating their lunch.  I sat down to catch my breath from the 20 blocks I had just walked, and was enjoying the nice breeze for about 30 minutes total.  I remember being here before for the Grimm Reality play we saw last year.

This building was really cool, but I could not get a shot of the top from where we were sitting.  I found this really great picture on Flickr from Anomalous_A:

 

It may just be my new favorite building in New York City.  It is the American Standard Building on 40th Street, now housing the New Community College at CUNY.

 Bryant Park was first named for the reservoir that used to be where the library is now.  It was originally called Reservoir Square. In 1899, it was Renamed Bryant Park for William Cullen Bryant, and in 1899 the reservoir was removed and the New York Public Library began construction.  The park was re-designed as part of a Great Depression public works project.

W.R. Grace Building

This is the back end of the library building.  In the 1980's, Bryant Park was closed so the library could expand their storage facilities.   There is now 125,000 square feet of space under Bryant Park...

from twentytwowords.com

A really relaxing afternoon before heading back to Brooklyn.