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The Central Park Mall is a mall in Central Park, in Manhattan, New York City. The mall, leading to Bethesda Fountain, provides the only purely formal feature in the naturalistic original plan of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux for Central Park. ==Description== The Mall was designed so that a carriage could disgorge its passengers at the south end, then drive round and pick them up again overlooking Bethesda Terrace, whose view of the Lake and Ramble formed the "ultimatum of interest" in Olmsted and Vaux's vision. With no need for tiresome redoubling their steps, fashionable New Yorkers, who in the first decades of the Park's existence drove through it in their stylish equipages but rarely ''walked'' in it, had their chance to mingle with the less affluent, a mix that was considered thoroughly "American", and picturesque enough to be illustrated repeatedly in the turn-of-the-twentieth-century watercolors of Maurice Prendergast (''illustrations'') and, slightly later, of Ludwig Bemelmans: "'a great charm of Central Park' wrote J. Crawford Hamilton in ''Munsey's Magazine'', 'is the marvellous variety of its scenery and embellishments' including the crowds".〔Quoted by Rosenzweig and Blackmar 1992:337〕 Facing onto the Mall near its upper end is the neo-classical half-domed Naumburg Bandshell (designed by William G. Tachau in 1916, built 1921-23),〔 A "Ladies' Refreshment Salon", later called the "Casino" with great improvements by Joseph Urban, stood behind it (Rosenzweig and Blackmar 1992:200).〕 The Naumburg Bandshell replaced Vaux's cast-iron and wooden construction of 1860, where nineteenth-century concerts evolved partly into open-air popular dances as the evenings fell. The bandstand fell into disrepair by 1912, and new designs were invited by the Parks Department at that time. The architectural firm of Carrère and Hastings made the first submission, but the proposal was rejected as blocking views west towards Sheep Meadow. 〔See New York City Art Commission files〕 Then the successful Naumburg Bandshell design of W. G. Tachau's was submitted for its location on the east side of the Concert Ground, centrally nestled between the two projecting scenic overlooks, and it was accepted. It is Central Park's only neo-classical building. The Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, founded in 1905 and America's oldest, outdoor classical music concert series take place there as a free gift to the public, each summer. Behind it, the wisteria pergola〔The rustic pergola was (restored in 1986 ).〕 parallels the Mall at the top of a slope; it provides screening and separation from the Mall for another outdoor concert stage in New York's Central Park, Central Park SummerStage. Grading the Promenade and the Center Drive that swept along its western flank offering views over the Sheep Meadow〔The Center Drive, long closed to traffic, (repaved in 1986 ), is now a rollerblade and skateboard venue〕 was done in 1858.〔Rosenzweig and Blackmar 1992:165.〕 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「Central Park Mall」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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