Architecture Here and There

As far as I know, it is to make the space behind the bollards usable. Recently, Haven Brothers has set up tables and chairs when they are parked on Fulton Street at night. The bollards really served no purpose other than to make the area behind them unusable.

Jef - Within the last couple of hours I talked to Alan Sepe, the city's property manager, who tells me they were removed because people eating at Haven Bros. diner (blessed institution!) were sitting on the chains and damaging the bollards. He said they may reinstall them. For what it's worth, I suggested that I thought City Hall looked as good without them as with them.

They did serve one other purpose, though, Jef. They were an aesthetic embellishment. That is a valid and indeed a laudable purpose. In the end, I don't think the embellishment did much one way or the other to improve the building, but that was the original purpose. They surely had no reason to make it harder to visit the space within the ballards.

Jef - Within the last couple of hours I talked to Alan Sepe, the city's property manager, who tells me they were removed because people eating at Haven Bros. diner (blessed institution!) were sitting on the chains and damaging the bollards. He said they may reinstall them. For what it's worth, I suggested that I thought City Hall looked as good without them as with them.

They did serve one other purpose, though, Jef. They were an aesthetic embellishment. That is a valid and indeed a laudable purpose. In the end, I don't think the embellishment did much one way or the other to improve the building, but that was the original purpose. They surely had no reason to make it harder to visit the space within the ballards.