ROLE OF PARKS IN GLOBAL CITIES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN SINGAPORE AND NEW YORK CITY

Abstract

As cities become denser, the increasing intensity of urban stress beckons the need for more urban green spaces to provide green relief and increase the liveability of the city. Global cities, in particular, have allocated prime land resources for park developments in the downtown, an important city’s core that concentrates different functions to drive the main economy of the cities. It is evident that there is a rising trend of developing city parks to combat the negative effects in the dense urban landscape. Hence, this dissertation aims to investigate the relationship between city parks and global cities by exploring the significant role city parks play in the global cities and assessing whether its current provision could sustain its viability and contribute to the success of global city making. Using Central Park in New York City and Gardens by the Bay in Singapore as case studies, qualitative findings that focus on their background and locational characteristics will be drawn to achieve the research objectives. It was generally observed that in realizing the global city vision, city parks illuminate the paradigm shift in urban planning where higher order function of urban elements are increasingly valued over the conventional intensity of land use that capitalises on high land values. Increasing pursuit towards better quality of life saw the evolvement of city parks from a mere green respite to an integral element that play multi-faceted roles. Through the findings, urban planners and architects could also gain insights concerning how they should balance green space aspirations between the goals of nation-building and global city as well as engaging the local communities to remain relevant to their needs in order to better sustain the reciprocal relationship between city parks and global cities.