Paul Bass Photo
One of the city’s premier pedestrian plazas was jammed — with vehicles.
A Department of Homeland Security’s supervisors car was parked there. So was a Williams Building Company truck. At least 17 vehicles, as well, some within newly painted parking stripes, others scattered around an iconic 44-foot red tubular sculpture. They were all hogging the open space meant to invite human beings to stroll, sit or loiter amid a confluence of government buildings.
That was the mid-day scene Wednesday at Federal Plaza, the pedestrian concourse connecting City Hall, the federal courthouse, the Robert N. Giaimo Federal Building, the Hall of Records, and the Connecticut Financial Center.
That’s been the scene for the past week, marking a dramatic change in what has been a central car-free public space for four decades.
The change happened after the federal General Services Administration (GSA), which controls the plaza, striped some 25 parking spaces.
It did so “to accommodate displaced federal employees during [nearby] garage repairs,” said regional GSA spokeswoman Cathy M. Menzies.
The locals — at least some city officials and public-space advocates — are none too happy.
Anstress Farwell of the Urban Design League called the move “an inappropriate use of the public plaza.”
“The plaza was not designed to accommodate regular traffic — just deliveries, and emergency and service vehicles,” she noted. “Parking for the courthouse is provided underground. Vehicle access to the site is only over the driveway off Church Street, which requires cars to pass over a busy sidewalk at a major bus stop. Visibility is poor for the drivers, and they often wait on the sidewalk for the security gates to open. It is a public nuisance to encourage cars here.”
The otherwise wide-open plaza, a pedestrian connector between Orange Street and the Green on Church Street, is best known for its signature towering artwork: Alexander Liberman’s rolled-steel collection of cylinders, entitled “On High.” As an official government description of the piece notes, “Liberman intended the public to walk around the sculpture, and experience a sensations similar to what he felt when he visited St. Peters.”
On Wednesday, passersby experienced the sensation of navigating their way around parked vehicles surrounding “On High,” including a Silktown Roofing truck left hard against the sculpture. Like several of the vehicles, it was parked outside of any marked lanes.
“It’s my first day here,” a Silktown worker responded when asked why the vehicle was there. “I don’t know why.”
City officials started talking about the change as soon as it happened last week and looked into what could be done, said City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg.
“I think it’s a totally inappropriate use of federal plaza, which was part of a government center project. That’s supposed to be a public plaza for pedestrians. It doesn’t make any sense to me,” Gilvarg said.
The city contacted GSA for clarity and received reassurance that the plan wouldn’t interfere with activities planned for the upcoming Arts & Ideas festival. But the city can’t do anything about the change, said Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts. “They [the feds] control the plaza.”
Gilvarg and Farwell said they’d like to see the feds allow businesses backing onto the plaza to put up patios and outside dining.
GSA’s Menzies said she has no information on whether that would be possible at some point.
But she had some good news for people concerned about a four-wheeler-dominated concourse: The feds expect to get rid of the parking in three months. The lanes are striped with removable tape.
