Post Office Square, Financial District

Norman B. Leventhal Park, located at Post Office Square in the heart of the Financial District, has a completely different feel than that of its surrounding areas. Even one block away the buildings are gridded and the only cutouts between the constricted buildings are for the streets. At Post Office Square, the buildings feel as though they separate and peel apart to reveal the oasis of a park. From the outside in, the park takes the feel of an island in dropped between the monoliths of buildings. From the inside out, the city seems to disappear visually and audibly. With the use of ample green trees, grass, and bushes, especially on the exterior of the park, the city is by all means shut out. With the use of fountains and the wildlife that has accumulated, natural sounds gently drown out the cars and pedestrians constantly moving by on every side. Inside the park is yet another oasis inside of an oasis, that almost shuts out the rest of the park as well: an ivy covered trellis that spans nearly the long length of the park. On the outskirts are entrances and exits to the below ground parking garage that sits beneath the park. These entrances are camouflaged by the trees and slip the cars from the street into the garage with. From any direction, the entrances can barely be seen unless directly next to them. There are two glass pavilions that sit on the south side of the park, one for the entrance to the garage and one for a small coffee shop. The fact that they are glass makes them transparent and allows them to go unfocused upon. On the north side of the park is another, yet smaller, similarly themed park separated by Milk Street. 

According to the official Norman B. Leventhal website: 'Visitors have called Norman B. Leventhal Park “an urban living room”, a “jewel” and a “green oasis in an asphalt desert”.'
Another excerpt from the official website: 'In the heart of the financial district, nestled among the high-rise office buildings, lies a lush oasis of green, a testament to the ingenuity and creativity of a group of people, both public and private, who joined together to foster this unique vision. What had previously been a decrepit and unsightly garage, is now an award-winning and inviting park set above a new underground parking garage. The Norman B. Leventhal Park is supported, structurally and financially, by Garage at Post Office Square, a 1,400-space parking garage.
“The 1.7 acre park’s centerpiece is a walk-through sculptural fountain, so whimsically friendly that in the summertime, office workers eating lunch often kick off their shoes to dip their feet in the fountain. A few yards away is a 143-foot-long formal garden trellis, supported by granite columns, draped with seven species of vines. The jewel-like Great Lawn, raised above the walkways by a granite curb, provides a relaxed retreat. More than a hundred different species of plants, flowers, bushes and trees are within the park. It features custom wrought-iron fencing and specially designed drainage gates. Seating styles fit every posterior and mood – stately teak benches, curving steel settees, movable cast-iron café chairs with tables, hundred of linear feet of inviting polished granite wall and half an acre of lawn, all meticulously maintained” (Urban Parks and Open Space, Urban Land Institute, 1997).'
*The top three images were photographed my myself and compiled into 360 degree panoramas. I edited the street plan to show the important roads and connection points. All hand drawings were produced by myself.