© The Battery
Conservancy, 2003
For more information, please visit:
www.oudolf.com
www.thebattery.org
www.nycgovparks.org
Books by Piet Oudolf
available
in the U.S.:
Piet
Oudolf
Chosen to Design Horticultural Master Plan for Lower Manhattan
** Click
here for National Public Radio 1/16/2003 coverage of this announcement
**
(includes image gallery)
Press Release
15 January 2003
Contact:
Andrea Schwan
Andrea Schwan Inc.
212/873-3284
andrea@andreaschwan.com
BATTERY AND PARKS DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCE HOLLAND’S PIET
OUDOLF AS DESIGNER FOR THE GARDENS OF REMEMBRANCE HONORING THOSE LOST
ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
Memorial Refuge To Be A Jewel in Oudolf’s Horticultural Master Plan For Lower Manhattan’s Most Dramatic Public Open Space
New York, NY…The Battery Conservancy and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation announced today the selection of internationally acclaimed Dutch horticulturist and landscape designer Piet Oudolf to design the Gardens of Remembrance, 10,000 square feet of perennial plantings, flowers and passages for meditation honoring those who perished on September 11th, 2001.
The 58-year old Oudolf, whose practice is based in the small town of Hummelo, The Netherlands, will design the Gardens of Remembrance as part of a major commission from the Conservancy to create an extraordinary horticultural master plan for the revitalization of The Battery. Destination for over 4 million visitors and 14 million commuters each year, The Battery is the City’s most dramatic public open space south of Central Park, with 23 contiguous acres of parkland offering peerless vistas onto New York Harbor’s 11,000 acres of waterway.
The Gardens of Remembrance and the horticultural master plan for The Battery are made possible by a $400,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and a $1 million grant from the Verizon Foundation to establish an endowment fund for the Gardens of Remembrance. The Battery Conservancy has launched a campaign to raise an additional $3 million required to fully endow the Gardens of Remembrance and assure their care in perpetuity.
Piet Oudolf will present his final design for the Gardens of Remembrance in early spring 2003 and begin planting by the beginning of summer at the site, originally dedicated to the project in December 2001. The Gardens of Remembrance are expected to be Oudolf’s first completed public commission in the United States. He will also design Chicago’s Millennium Park.
“We are excited to welcome the work of Piet Oudolf to such a prominent City park and are grateful for the efforts of Warrie Price and The Battery Conservancy to bring Mr. Oudolf there," said Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe. "The Gardens of Remembrance will provide a place for reflection for New Yorkers and visitors, and will be an important contribution to the many innovative gardens, landscapes, and groves being developed in parks across the city."
“It seems particularly fitting that Piet Oudolf of Holland should be part of the rebirth of The Battery,” said Warrie Price, president of The Battery Conservancy. “This is the place New York City began with the original Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam in 1625. With Oudolf’s commission and the many other developments we plan to announce in coming months and years, The Battery will once again help to inspire and catalyze a renaissance in Lower Manhattan. We are proud and delighted to bring international vision and talent to a beloved, historic place that has welcomed so many people from around the globe to American life.”
On January 22, 2003, Piet Oudolf will give a talk and presentation of his work to an invited audience in New York City. Hosted by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and The Battery Conservancy as part of the Parks Department’s “Uncommon Ground” lecture series, Oudolf’s presentation will take place at The Arsenal in Central Park. Support for the presentation has been provided by The Netherlands Consulate General in New York.
Focused upon designs that bring the natural world back into human habitats, Oudolf has won acclaim for sustainable gardens that celebrate the poignancy of life. Occasionally including species native to their geographical context, his designs bring together highly original juxtapositions of herbaceous perennials – plants whose constant cycle of growth and regeneration serve to affirm the enduring spirit of things temporal. Oudolf’s gardens are remarkable for their profoundly alive atmosphere in every season, including deepest winter.
The Gardens of Remembrance will be situated in The Battery’s Upper Promenade, contiguous with the waterfront running 1,500 feet, outlining the prow of Manhattan and tracing the Island’s edge.
The Battery is a major urban transportation hub and home to more than two-dozen important monuments, inviting lyrical green spaces, paths for pedestrians and bicyclists, and unrivaled visual access to New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty. The park is also home to Castle Clinton, the storied United States National Monument that over the past 200 years has served a series of functions reflecting the social and economic evolution of New York and the United States: Beginning life as a military fort, it evolved into the City’s premier culture and entertainment venue; subsequently, it served as the nation’s key immigration portal prior to the opening of Ellis Island; as the home of the New York Aquarium; and, later, as ticketing site and traffic switchpoint for those taking ferries to destinations in New York Harbor.
The Battery Conservancy was created in 1994 to work in partnership with the City’s Department of Parks & Recreation to implement a 1988 general usage plan outlining principles for revitalizing and rebuilding The Battery, one of New York’s and the nation’s most profound historic places. That plan, outlining programmatic functions for the park, specifies conversion of asphalt to green space and recommends aligning park pathways with the existing street pattern. Many of the monuments located throughout the park are now planned to create a Hero’s Walk along the park perimeter, freeing large areas in the interior for gardens.
Commenting upon his commission for The Battery, Piet Oudolf said, “I am honored to accept this important commission from The Battery Conservancy and to contribute to the future of such a remarkable and meaningful place. My work is devoted to the ever-evolving relationship between people and nature, and Lower Manhattan presents an extraordinary opportunity to further explore and pay tribute to that relationship at the beginning of a new century.”
For additional information,
please visit The Battery Conservancy web site at www.thebattery.org
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