The Bryant Park Restoration Corporation, founded by Mr. Biederman and Andrew Heiskell, former Chairman of Time Inc. and then Chairman of the New York Public Library, with the assistance of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, is one of the largest efforts in the nation to apply private management backed by private funding to a public park. The park reopened in 1991 with a budget six times the level under prior city management, and has been a huge success with public, press, and nearby institutions. Crime in the critical nine-acre area managed by BPRC has been reduced by 100% since the Corporation's founding. Today's Bryant Park is favorably compared with the great parks of London and Paris, and was the 1996 winner of the Urban Land Institute Excellence Award for public projects, as well as many other awards from design, real estate, and redevelopment groups.