Audi 2009 Annual Report Download - page 55

he report recently released by the venerable Cen-
tral Park Conservancy offered welcome news for
those who prefer not to sit on the grass in their
business clothes: There are now more than 9,000 park
benches in Central Park. Again: more than 9,000 – in a
single park! This is more than major cities like Vancouver
have in all of their parks, and likely more than Hamburg,
Cologne and Frankfurt combined. If two business people
share a bench at lunchtime in New York, there is enough
room for 18,000 people to sit comfortably in Central
Park. They can take out their sandwiches and grab a soft
drink from a beverage cart, feel the sun on their faces and
let the breeze blow their everyday office cares from their
minds. Lean your head back and you can see the clouds in
the skies above the city – and watch that breeze move and
shape them.
In New York, the report about the benches didn’t raise
many eyebrows. Residents along the Hudson River are
used to records, especially when they come from Central
Park. After all, it’s anything but a typical city park. The
rectangle lined by streets and avenues in the middle of
Manhattan is the most famous stretch of greenery on the
planet. With 350 hectares of bushes and grassland, it’s
larger than the principality of Monaco, and is home to
26,000 trees and 275 bird species. Those are just cold
More space
COPY/STEFAN NINK
ILLUSTRATION/JULIA PFALLER
T
Small
retreats
From New York to Munich to Kyoto,
major cities around the globe grant
themselves the luxury of maintain-
ing gigantic parks right in the mid-
dle of the city. The green sanctuaries
help satisfy the yearnings of urban
dwellers for nature and calm.
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