BRV brings over twenty-five years of experience in the art and science of placemaking and park management to public spaces and neighborhood redevelopments around the world.
BRV emerged from the work of BRV's President, Dan Biederman, at Bryant Park in Manhattan. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, Bryant Park was New York’s most dangerous park. Dan formed a non-profit corporation dedicated to turning the park around and signed an agreement with the City of New York to take over the security, sanitation, maintenance, and programming of the space.
Since reopening in 1992, Bryant Park has become an international model of urban revitalization. Bryant Park caters to visitors 12 months a year and is among the most actively used parks in the world. It has created hundreds of millions of dollars in value for the real estate surrounding the park and operates without a dollar in public sector funds. Dan is still the president of the Bryant Park Corporation and oversees the daily operations of the park.
Dan is also the founder of three non-profit business improvement districts/neighborhood improvement corporations: Grand Central Partnership, 34th Street Partnership, and Chelsea Improvement Company. Dan continues to serve as the president of 34th Street Partnership.
BRV brings the “Bryant Park model” to cities around the country. On behalf of our clients BRV:
Forms organizations dedicated to creating, turning around, and operating public spaces
Negotiates park management agreements and leases with city and state governments
Creates public space operating plans with self-sustaining revenue and expense budgets
Designs park programming events and activities to keep the space busy throughout the year
Steers public space design and renovation plans for new and historic sites
Leads the pre-development and construction process
Implements operating and programming plans (hiring and training staff, executing programming plans, generating sponsorships and other revenue sources, etc.)
Operates parks and public spaces on a short or long-term basis