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Location Information:
The
Central Park is a public park in the
center of Manhattan in New York
City, United States. The park
initially opened in 1857, on 843
acres (3.41 km2) of city-owned land.
In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and
Calvert Vaux won a design
competition to improve and expand
the park with a plan they entitled
the Greensward Plan. Construction
began the same year and was
completed in 1873.
Designated a National Historic
Landmark in 1963, the park is
currently managed by the Central
Park Conservancy under contract with
the city government. The Conservancy
is a nonprofit organization that
contributes 85% of Central Park's
$25 million dollar annual budget,
and employs 80% of the park's
maintenance staff. Central Park is
bordered on the north by West 110th
Street, on the south by West 59th
Street, on the west by Eighth
Avenue, and on the east by Fifth
Avenue. Along the park's borders
however, these are known as Central
Park North, Central Park South, and
Central Park West, respectively.
Only Fifth Avenue retains its name
as it delineates the eastern border
of the park.
Each
summer, the Public Theater presents
free open-air theatre productions,
often starring well-known stage and
screen actors. The Delacorte Theater
is the summer performing venue of
the New York Shakespeare Festival.
Most, although not all, of the plays
presented are by William
Shakespeare, and the performances
are generally regarded as being of
high quality since its founding by
Joseph Papp in 1962.
The
New York Philharmonic gives an
open-air concert every summer on the
Great Lawn, and the Metropolitan
Opera presents two operas. Many
concerts have been given in the park
including The Supremes, 1970; Carole
King, 1973; Bob Marley & The
Wailers, 1975; Elton John, 1980; the
Simon and Garfunkel reunion, 1981;
Diana Ross, 1983; Garth Brooks,
1997; the Dave Matthews Band, 2003,
and Bon Jovi 2008. Since 1992, local
singer-songwriter David Ippolito has
performed almost every summer
weekend to large crowds of
passers-by and regulars and has
become a New York icon, often simply
referred to as "That guitar man from
Central Park." In the summer of
1985, Bruce Springsteen planned to
hold a free outdoor concert on the
Great Lawn, however the idea was
scrapped when it was purported that
any free show held by Springsteen
would bring an estimated 1.3 million
people, crippling the park and the
nearby neighborhoods.
Local
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