Lynden Miller was a painter with a passion for plants when Betsy Rogers, as administrator of Central Park and head of the Central Park Conservatory, handed her an assignment: restore the Conservatory Garden at 105th St. and Fifth Ave. That was 1982, when that end of the park was often considered dangerous. In addition to restoring the garden, Lynden was also charged with raising the money to do it and finding a way to bring people back to it. The Conservatory Garden was the beginning of her career as a public garden designer. Gardens all over town followed, including those at Bryant, Wagner, and Madison Square parks.

Now Lynden Miller has written a book, Parks, Plants and People, which tells others how public gardens can be created, including a resource directory on everything from the art of garden design to park advocacy and funding sources, plus a plant list of those she has found to be hardy, reliable and relatively low-maintenance. She dedicates the book to William H. Whyte, from whom she learned the elements of a successful public space. In addition to practical advice, Lynden Miller provides telling anecdotes. When a taxi driver dropping her at the Conservatory Garden in the early 1980s expressed concern for her safety, she invited him to accompany her into the partially restored garden, where the crab apples were in bloom. One down.

This Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m., join us at the Municipal Art Society for an engaging and inspirational talk with Ms. Miller, buy an autographed book at a 25% discount, and talk with fellow urban garden lovers over a glass of something refreshing. $15, $10 MAS members. Reservations recommended. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-3960. MAP.

Directly across the East River from the United Nations, Gantry Plaza State Park has stunning views of Manhattan, but it was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter for its main attraction: restored gantry cranes. Now dramatic industrial sculptures, these gantries were the nexus for providing goods and supplies to Long Island via the Long Island Rail Road tracks that used to run to the water’s edge. Built in the 1920s, the gantries hoisted rail cars from floats and barges onto land and vice versa, opening up the Long Island waterfront for industrial activity and inland for residential communities.

But the gantries are just one feature that pays homage to the Long Island City waterfront’s industrial past, which is quickly giving way to residential buildings. The Long Island City waterfront was originally a site for tanneries and other factories, including the Pepsico bottling plant in Hunters Point. The iconic ruby-red Pepsi Cola sign was dismantled late in 2008 to be re-situated further north in the newest section of Gantry Plaza State Park, which just opened July 1, 2009. Continue Reading>>

About eight years ago, architectural historian Matt Postal read about two fellows who wanted to transform a derelict railroad structure into a park. Matt soon got the go-ahead for a walking tour, “In the Shadow of the High Line,” from then-tours director Jill Anson.

Neither Jill nor Matt knew if anyone would be interested. Sixty people showed up the first time MAS offered the tour — and the second time it was offered, and the third. Matt continued to lead the walk every year, as the park became a reality. For years, tour takers wended their way along the base of the High Line, through a then-raffish neighborhood of warehouses and meat markets. Last Saturday, on a perfect summer’s day, Matt led MAS members up the stairs and into the light. They had a shared, audible response. Wow. Continue Reading>>

Join tour leader Alexis Torres-Fleming and her colleagues from Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice (YMPG) this Saturday (June 20th) for a tour of Concrete Plant Park and adjacent areas of the South Bronx.

The tour is really a window into the enormous challenges and impressive successes to be found in this section of the South Bronx. Here, dedicated residents have fought for environmental justice and a concrete plant ruin has become a beautiful park, designed with the help of the community.

Saturday, June 20, 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Concrete Plant Park and the Blooming Bronx
Meet at YMPJ, 1384 Stratford Avenue, Bronx. (Transit: #6 train to Morrison/Sound View Ave., walk one block West to Stratford Ave., then North to YMPJ). $15, $10 MAS members. Please walk-up and pay. Tour will go ahead rain or shine. MAP.

Last Wednesday, MAS hosted an all-star panel of park designers, administrators, and other experts to discuss the latest on some of New York’s most exciting park projects. The projects ranged in scale from small — the new Concrete Park Project in the South Bronx — to extremely large — Fresh Kills in Staten Island and Riverside South on the Upper West Side. The presentations and discussion focused on the challenge of developing sustainable parks on challenging sites in a time of economic uncertainty.

For those who were not able to make the event, we’ve put together a highlight of the Fresh Kills presentation – a project that, as its administrator Eloise Hirsh acknowledged, MAS was instrumental in making happen. For more information, visit www.mas.org/freshkills.

Join award-winning designer Tom Balsley, FASLA, and Michael Koontz, ASLA, of Thomas Balsley Associates, for a walking tour of Riverside Park South this Sunday. This park, notable for both its design and financing, celebrates the specific natural and industrial past of the site.

It is a new sort of park landscape for New York, one of tall grasses, leafy trees, abstract forms and references to the site’s past as a mammoth rail yard. All of the park’s construction and maintenance is privately funded.

Riverside Park South Walking Tour

Sunday, May 31, 11:00 a.m.
Meet at stairs at 73rd Street and Riverside Drive. Before 3:00 p.m. today (Friday 5/29/09), please purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075, or walk up on Sunday morning. $15, $10 MAS members. MAP.

Join MAS President Vin Cipolla and an expert panel tonight for a fascinating discussion of the future of parks in New York City. The city’s parks system is currently undergoing an ambitious expansion that seeks to intertwine natural and designed environments, and the primary focus of this panel is a trio of exciting new parks that have been developed through a variety of innovative approaches in this regard.

Concrete Plant Park in the Bronx would never have been created without the hard work and thoughtful programming of the community; Riverside Park South offers 21st century design, telling references to the past, and private financing; and Freshkills Park, at two and a half times the size of Central Park, was a beautiful wetland that became a despised landfill, and is now being transformed into a place for play and pleasure.

Urban Parks in the Twenty-First Century: Creating a New Model

Wednesday, May 27, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., at the Municipal Art Society MAP
Tickets are $15, $10 MAS members. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075.
Moderator: Vin Cipolla, president, Municipal Art Society; vice chairman, National Park Foundation. Panelists: Eloise Hirsh, administrator, Freshkills Park, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation; Thomas Balsley, FASLA, founder and principal designer, Thomas Balsley Associates; Linda Cox, executive director, Bronx River Alliance; and Peter Harnik, director, Center for City Park Excellence, Trust for Public Land.

Grand Ferry Park, located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter for providing public access to the waterfront for nearly one hundred years.

In the hopes of creating a suburb of Manhattan, real estate speculator Richard M. Woodhull purchased 13 acres of land in Brooklyn. In 1802, Woodhull launched ferry service that ran from the foot of his parcel at North 2nd Street to Grand Street, on the Lower East Side.

The new neighborhood surrounding the ferry landing was called “Williamsburgh,” after the surveyor of the site, Colonel Jonathan Williams.  A relative of Benjamin Franklin, Colonel Williams was the first superintendent of West Point, the Chief Engineer of the Army Corps of Engineers and a member of Congress representing Pennsylvania. Continue Reading>>

 

 City of Art: New York's Hidden Treasures Revealed: Play Now | Play in Popup

Ahead of the panel discussion City of Art: New York’s Hidden Treasures Revealed which MAS is hosting on Thursday, April 16, at 6:30 pm., leading environmental artist George Trakas talked to Elizabeth Werbe of MAS about his recent public art work in New York City.

Widely acclaimed for numerous projects in North America and Western Europe over the past thirty years, Trakas has recently completed a major piece of work for the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn. Commissioned by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art program, his creation makes approximately 1,000 feet of shoreline accessible to the public. Continue Reading>>

Far Rockaway, Queens consists of two square miles of barrier island just across the bay from JFK Airport and just west of the Nassau County line. Its population is diverse, including a large Orthodox Jewish community, and immigrants from Russia, Jamaica, Guyana, and Guatemala. While there are some upscale areas, particularly near the Long Island border, a large percentage of residents live in public or rent-regulated housing. The area has been hit hard recently by a double-whammy: a wave of foreclosures due to the ongoing mortgage crisis, and a nearly simultaneous wave of new, often luxury, development.

Jeanne DuPont was inspired to start the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance (RWA) when she saw that much of that new development was proceeding with little regard for current residents. Continue Reading>>