The concept of the park first came up for public discussion in the 1840s. By and large its advocates were wealthy landowners and merchants, who argued that New York lacked the kind of parks that graced cities such as London and Paris, and that the creation of such a park would enhance New York's reputation as an international city. With the population of the city growing, there was an intense need for public spaces, which the Commissioners' Plan had been notoriously short on providing for. In 1853, the state legislature authorized the city to use eminent domain to acquire the necessary land. Four years later it appointed a Central Park Commission, led by Andrew Haswell Green, to build the park. The commission held a design contest, which was won by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux's "Greensward Plan". Construction started in 1857, and in 1863 the northern boundary was moved from 106th Street, where it had originally been set, to 110th Street. In 1870 the park passed from state control to local control when a new city charter came into effect. The park was completed by 1876.