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Daniel A. (Dan) Biederman is a prominent New York City downtown manager and pioneer in the field of privately funded urban and public space management. He is the co-founder of Grand Central Partnership, 34th Street Partnership, and Bryant Park Corporation, three Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) operating in midtown Manhattan. He currently serves as the president of the latter two of these organizations and advises downtown redevelopment efforts in several other cities. ==Bryant Park Corporation== Bryant Park Corporation was co-founded in 1980 by Biederman and Andrew Heiskell, Chairman of Time Inc. and the New York Public Library. Initially supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, BPC is now funded by assessments on property and businesses adjacent to the park, and by revenue generated from events held at the park. BPC is the largest U.S. effort to provide private management, with private funding, to a public park. By the 1970s Bryant Park had become a dangerous haven for drug dealers and was widely seen as a symbol of New York City’s decline. Upon assuming management of the park, Biederman and Heiskell created a master plan for turning around the park’s fortunes. In the words of an Urban Land Institute case study, "Biederman began experimenting with a series of efforts to bring people back to the park, while also exploring how to generate revenue." BPC immediately brought significant changes that made the park once again a place that citizens wanted to visit. Biederman, a proponent of the "Broken Windows Theory" expounded by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling in a seminal 1982 article in ''Atlantic Monthly'', instituted a rigorous program to clean the park, remove graffiti and repair the broken physical plant. BPC also created a private security staff to confront unlawful behavior immediately. In 1988 BPC closed the park in order to undertake a four-year project to build new park entrances for increased visibility from the street, to enhance the formal French garden design (with a lush redesign by Lynden Miller), and to improve and repair paths and lighting. BPC’s plan also included restoring of the park’s monuments, and renovating its long-closed restrooms, and building two restaurant pavilions and four concession kiosks. Biederman worked with William H. Whyte, the American sociologist and distinguished observer of public space. Whyte’s influence led Biederman to implement two decisions essential to making the park the successful public space that it us. First, Biederman insisted on placing movable chairs in the park. Whyte had long believed that movable chairs give people a sense of empowerment, allowing them to sit wherever and in whatever orientation they desire. The second decision was to lower the park itself. Until 1988, Bryant Park had been elevated from the street and further isolated by tall hedges, a layout tailor-made to foster illegal activity. The 1988 renovation lowered the park to nearly street level and tore out the hedges. After a four-year effort overseen by Biederman, the park reopened in 1992 to widespread acclaim. Called “a triumph for many” by NY Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger,〔"Bryant Park: An out-of-town experience", New York Times, May 3, 1992.〕 the renovation was lauded not only for its architectural excellence, but also for adhering to Whyte’s vision. “He understood that the problem of Bryant Park was its perception as an enclosure cut off from the city; he knew that, paradoxically, people feel safer when not cut off from the city, and that they feel safer in the kind of public space they think they have some control over.” The renovation was lauded as "The Best Example of Urban Renewal" by New York Magazine,〔"Best Example of Urban Renewal" New York Magazine December 20, 1993〕 and made Time Magazine's list of "Best Design of 1992".〔"Best Design of 1992" Time Magazine January 4, 1993.〕 Many awards followed, including a Design Merit Award from Landscape Architecture Magazine,〔Landscape Architecture November, 1994〕 which noted that the park was "colorful and comfortable....and safe". In 1996, the Urban Land Institute honored BPC with a ULI Award For Excellence. ULI remarked that the renovation "turned a disaster into an asset, dramatically improved the neighborhood, and pushed up office rents and occupancy rates."〔UrbanLand December, 1996〕 In the 28 years since BPC assumed management, the park has become one of Manhattan’s most beautiful, best maintained and most visited public sites. Besides the restrooms, restaurant, and concession kiosks, BPC has added a custom-built carousel and has revived the tradition of an open-air library, The Reading Room, which also hosts literary events. The HBO/Bryant Park Summer Film Festival, begun in the early nineties, became an instant favorite for New Yorkers and is now a much-beloved tradition. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dan Biederman」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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