A gathering place is any place where people are able to congregate. Gathering places may be public; for example, city streets, town squares, and parks; or private; for example, churches, coffee shops, stadiums, and theaters.
Examples of gathering places include Stonehenge, the agora of ancient Greece, New York City's Central Park, and London's Trafalgar Square.
A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky.
A village green is a common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for gathering cattle to bring them later on to a common land for grazing. Later, planned greens were built into the centres of villages.
A public space is a place that is open and accessible to the general public. Roads, pavements, public squares, parks, and beaches are typically considered public space. To a limited extent, government buildings which are open to the public, such as public libraries, are public spaces, although they tend to have restricted areas and greater limits upon use. Although not considered public space, privately owned buildings or property visible from sidewalks and public thoroughfares may affect the public visual landscape, for example, by outdoor advertising. Recently, the concept of shared space has been advanced to enhance the experience of pedestrians in public space jointly used by automobiles and other vehicles.
A square is an open public space used for various activities. Squares are not necessarily a true geometric square. Most squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets, concerts, political rallies, and other events that require firm ground.
The Macquarie Place Park, also known as the Macquarie Place Precinct, is a heritage-listed small triangular urban park located in the Sydney central business district in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The former town square and milestone and now memorial, public park and monument is situated on the corner of Bridge Street and Loftus Street. It is named in honour of Governor Lachlan Macquarie. The precinct includes The Obelisk or Macquarie Obelisk, the Sirius anchor and gun/cannon, the Statue of Thomas Sutcliffe Mort, the historic Underground Public Conveniences and the Christie Wright Memorial Fountain. The property was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 5 March 2010.
Taksim Square, situated in Beyoğlu in the European part of Istanbul, Turkey, is a major tourist and leisure district famed for its restaurants, shops, and hotels. It is considered the heart of modern Istanbul, with the central station of the Istanbul Metro network. Taksim Square is also the location of the Republic Monument which was crafted by Pietro Canonica and inaugurated in 1928. The monument commemorates the 5th anniversary of the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, following the Turkish War of Independence.
Washington Square Park is a 9.75-acre (3.95 ha) public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City's public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. It is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Union Square is a historic intersection and surrounding neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City, United States, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in the early 19th century. Its name denotes that "here was the union of the two principal thoroughfares of the island". The current Union Square Park is bounded by 14th Street on the south, 17th Street on the north, and Union Square West and Union Square East to the west and east respectively. 17th Street links together Broadway and Park Avenue South on the north end of the park, while Union Square East connects Park Avenue South to Fourth Avenue and the continuation of Broadway on the park's south side. The park is maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Rittenhouse Square is a neighborhood, including a public park, in Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Rittenhouse Square often specifically refers to the park, while the neighborhood as a whole is referred to simply as Rittenhouse. The park is one of the five original open-space parks planned by William Penn and his surveyor Thomas Holme during the late 17th century.
Edinburgh Place is a public square in Central, Hong Kong, adjacent to the Victoria Harbour. The Hong Kong City Hall is located in the square. In addition, the Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier and Queen's Pier were also located in the square before they were demolished in early 2007.
Congo Square is an open space, now within Louis Armstrong Park, which is located in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, just across Rampart Street north of the French Quarter. The square is famous for its influence on the history of African American music, especially jazz.
Jackson Square, formerly the Place d'Armes (French) or Plaza de Armas (Spanish), is a historic park in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960, for its central role in the city's history, and as the site where in 1803 Louisiana was made United States territory pursuant to the Louisiana Purchase. In 2012 the American Planning Association designated Jackson Square as one of the Great Public Spaces in the United States.
Washington Square, also known as Washington Square Park, is a park in Chicago, Illinois. A registered historic landmark that is better known by its nickname Bughouse Square, it was the most celebrated open air free-speech center in the country as well as a popular Chicago tourist attraction. It is located across Walton Street from Newberry Library at 901 N. Clark Street in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is Chicago's oldest existing small park. It is one of four Chicago Park District parks named after persons surnamed Washington. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 20, 1991.
Maple Leaf Square is a multi-use complex and public square located in the South Core neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located to the west of the Scotiabank Arena on the former Railway Lands. The $500 million development was jointly developed by Cadillac Fairview, Lanterra and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), who own the nearby Scotiabank Arena. The complex has 1,800,000 square feet (170,000 m2) of usable space covering 2.1 acres (0.85 ha) on one city block.
The Savannah Historic District is a large urban U.S. historic district that roughly corresponds to the pre–Civil War city limits of Savannah, Georgia. The area was declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1966, and is one of the largest urban, community-wide historic preservation districts in the United States. The district was established in recognition of the Oglethorpe Plan, a unique model of urban planning begun in 1733 by James Oglethorpe at Savannah's founding and propagated during the first century of the city's growth.
Bienville Square is a historic city park in the center of downtown Mobile, Alabama. Bienville Square was named for Mobile's founder, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville. It takes up the entire block bordered by the streets of Dauphin, Saint Joseph, Saint Francis, and North Conception.
Liberty Square is a public plaza covering over 240,000 square meters in the Zhongzheng District of Taipei, Taiwan. It has served as the city's public gathering place of choice since its completion in the late 1970s. The name of the square recalls the important historical role it played in Taiwan's transition from one-party rule to modern democracy in the 1990s.
A garden square is a type of communal garden in an urban area wholly or substantially surrounded by buildings; commonly, it continues to be applied to public and private parks formed after such a garden becomes accessible to the public at large. The archetypal garden square is surrounded by tall terraced houses and other types of townhouse. Because it is designed for the amenity of surrounding residents, it is subtly distinguished from a town square designed to be a public gathering place: due to its inherent private history, it may have a pattern of dedicated footpaths and tends to have considerably more plants than hard surfaces or large monuments.
Jackson Square Park is an urban park in the Greenwich Village Historic District in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The 0.227 acres (920 m2) park is bordered by 8th Avenue on the west, Horatio Street on the south, and Greenwich Avenue on the east. The park interrupts West 13th Street.
The fountains ofBarcelona, in Spain, are a group of various jets of water that are utilized for the public benefit, or as ornamental elements to preexisting fountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, or diverse architectural installation. They can vary from the simplest pipe of water or the traditional symmetrical fountain, to complex arrays of founts decorated with sculptures or other ornamental elements. These fountains, as well as the various sculptures across the city, constitute an excellent example of the public art of Barcelona, which has so defined the City Condal. Many of the city's fountains add to its functional character an ornamental facet that, like the rest of its municipal art, has varied over time according to the artistic tendencies of the times, and has left the Catalan capital a collection of works admired greatly both by the citizens and by visitors. In Barcelona there are some 1,800 public fountains, among which there are some 600 that produce drinkable water, and some 200 that are chiefly considered ornamental.
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