Robert Moses's World's Fair Bench. (Courtesy Kenneth Lynch & Sons)
There are so many classic benches around New York City: you've got the World's Fair Bench (designed by Robert Moses), the Central Park Settee, and the tried and true wood-and-concrete, all little green monuments to the art of sitting. These benches are one of the city's most simple, historic, and already functional joys—can't we just leave these perfect things alone?
Like those silver eyesores that started popping up around 2010, a new bench has arrived to threaten the classics, and this time it's heralding slick features. The solar-powered smart benches were unveiled today and will come decked out with charging stations. This is what they look like:
Move over giant solar panel, someone could be sitting there. (Photo: Parks/M. Pinckney)
The new pilot program will bring five of these smart benches—created by Soofa, an MIT Media Lab spin-off—to Manhattan and the Bronx’ Highbridge Parks. They'll be able to charge your mobile devices and "aid NYC Parks in understanding how many people visit the parks, by counting Wi-Fi enabled devices as they pass." This data will supposedly help with maintenance schedules.
At a press conference today Rohit T. Aggarwala, Chief Policy Officer of Sidewalk Labs, declared: "The bench is amazing." We respectfully disagree.
Having charging devices around the city is a wonderful thing, but why attach them to our lovely benches? Here are some alternate suggestions: charging lamppost, charging pigeon, charging hot dog cart, just a totally separate charging tower that stands alone near a regular bench, charging garbage can...
As for whether or not they'll wipe out our classic greens: probably not, but a rep for the Parks Department told us this afternoon, "The pilot program is slated for two years. If successful we will expand the program."
