Middle Park



Middle Park is a park in the GTA IV and GTA Chinatown rendition of Liberty City, situated in the middle of Algonquin.

Character
Middle Park is an obvious spoof of New York City's Central Park, being a long strip of greenery bordered by heavily urbanized areas influenced by real-life neighborhoods in New York City that neighbor Central Park.

The park's boundaries consist of major thoroughfares, including (clockwise from the west) Frankfort Avenue to the west (bordering Middle Park West and Varsity Heights), Topaz Street to the north (bordering North Holland and East Holland), Columbus Avenue (bordering Lancet and Middle Park East) and Nickel Street (bordering Star Junction. Quartz Street, which forms the border between Middle Park West and Varsity Heights, and Middle Park East and Lancet, cuts across Middle Park.

Because of its proximity with the aforementioned neighborhoods, the park is an ideal recreational spot for local residents from all sides of the park (ranging from normal visitors to joggers and taichi practitioners), and additionally serves as a tourist attraction, drawing in tourists to visit the area. As a result of its popularity, Middle Park is also a venue for street musicians as well as soapboxxers.

Middle Park the second largest of three large parks in Liberty City, Meadow Park being the largest and Outlook Park being the smallest. Like Central Park, Middle Park is presumed to have been landscaped to seemingly appear natural; the park sports a large lake at the center, and features rockface cliffs at the northern ends of the park.

According to the in-game TV documentary, A History of Liberty City, Middle Park was built in the 1850s to "provide a scenic backdrop for junkies to inject shit in their arms and to smoke weed". It was also built for businessmen to have their lunch in, for people to relax, take part in early morning taichi and for people to go "Gay Bashing".

Places of interest
While smaller in land area than Meadow Park, Middle Park boasts a variety of facilities and features matched with those found at Meadow Park. One of its most prominent features the lake as well as an adjoining lakeside restaurant in the northern end and a large terraced plaza fronting the lakefront at the southern end. The park also features a small garden at the southern end of the park, and a range of sculptures and statues on the southern half of the park. Other than that, the park offers the usual fare of wide open greenspace and paths.

The Libertonian is also situated within the park's boundaries, at the east side facing Columbus Avenue. The building is the only major structure to be located in the park, but is undergoing renovations as of the timeline of GTA IV, in 2008.

Influences
Being evidently based on New York City's Central Park, Middle Park is roughly similar to Central Park's design, featuring a heavily vegetated area with a lake being its main feature, but sporting few prominent landmarks.

The massive plaza fronting the park's lake is based on Central Park's Bethesda Terrace, while The Libertonian's position in Middle Park is similar to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's position in Central Park. Other spoofed landmarks include Central Park's Cleopatra's Needle, replicated in the form of an obelisk to the southeast that features hieroglyphic cravings, and the Maine Monument at Merchant's Gate (the main entrance to Central Park from Columbus Circle), which pylon was partially duplicated but its golden statue on top replaced by an angelic counterpart.

The lake that serves as a central facet of the park is similar to Central Park's lake, but also extended further to the north, suggesting that the profile of the Central Park Reservoir was incorporated into the design of Middle Park's lake, resulting in the park featuring a lake that extended from north to south.

Transportation
Middle Park is well connected to local subway services, with the aptly named North Park (at Topaz Street), West Park (at Frankfort Avenue) and East Park (at Columbus Avenue) Algonquin Inner Line stations within a short walking distance from the park's boundaries; one portal into East Park station is actually built into the southeastern tip of the park itself. The Quartz West station of the Algonquin Outer Line also serves the park.

Trivia

 * The park features a penis-like sculpture just west of its terraced plaza (a 2007 work entitled "Le Knobelisk"), effectively overlooking the plaza itself. The sculpture may be destroyed repeatedly, including a case in a mission in GTA IV, "Meltdown", when a car plows into the sculpture and crashes into the plaza.