3 minute read
Viewfinder: Garden Party
GARDEN PARTY
At the southern tip of Manhattan, a 25-acre oasis awaits.
byDan Metz photography byKirit Prajapati
THE BATTERY IN DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN is a tribute to resilience. You might know it as the park surrounding the ferries to Staten Island and the Statue of Liberty, or the site of Castle Clinton, a 19th-century fort. Over the last decade, the non-profit park has developed its 25-acre plot into so much more. The gardens stretch across 195,000 sqare feet, with an expansion project which will grow it to a massive 240,000 sqare feet. The Battery, and the memorials within it, have come to represent the strength of New York City, as well as its efforts to adapt to climate change. On September 11, 2001, The Battery was a 15-minute walk from the World Trade Center complex. The park was in the middle of construction of their first garden, which ran along the southern edge, looking out over the water. As the morning turned to afternoon, thousands of survivors made their way to the ferry, passing the garden on their way to safety. The Battery dedicated that garden, called the Gardens of Remembrance, to the survivors.
From there, The Battery added The Bosque (Spanish for a grove of trees), The Tiffany & Co. Woodland Gardens, The Battery Bikeway Gardens, the Battery Urban Farm, the SeaGlass carousel, and more, becoming a destination all its own instead of a way-station for ferry-goers. When Greta Thunberg came to NYC in September 2019, 80,000 people gathered in The Battery Oval to hear her speak. “We truly want to be the contrast to the urban grid and the verticality of our buildings,” says Battery Conservancy Founder and President Warrie Price, “We are downtown’s garden.”
And, as “downtown’s garden,” The Battery has built a relationship with the community. In addition to the 44 million people who cross through the park every year, the Battery Urban Farm receives some 7,000 students from 150 schools who volunteer to grow food. And it is a lot of food: 1000 lbs in 2018, all pesticide and toxin-free. In return, that food goes back
TOP AND BOTTOM: Views of the Battery by photographer @casa_rodrigues_
to the students who grew it in the form of fruit snacks and salad bars in lunchrooms across town. Volunteering is not just for kids: Price invites all of those curious about growing food in the city to come by and learn from trained horticulturists.
The Battery has also become a centerpoint for sustainability and biodiversity in New York City. Dense perennials and meandering gardens has turned The Battery into a migratory butterfly waystation, as well as a home for diverse bird species. Since Hurricane Sandy flooded the gardens in 2012, The Battery has focused on planting salt-tolerant plants that can survive floods and help the ground hold water to prevent runoff. That rising water, Price says, has become worrying over the years. Rising waters caused by global warming could be an existential threat to low-lying New York City. “I’m very concerned because I see it,” says Price, “When I started 26 years ago, the basement of (Castle Clinton) didn’t flood at high tide. (We) see it ourselves here and we must respond. You can’t just say it’s not going to happen or there’s never going to be another Sandy. Well, there will be.”
The Battery’s current construction project, a playground with 40,000 square feet of shrubs and trees, will be the park’s last major capital project, and in the next five years, they will move to resilience projects. It will be a big undertaking for the park, which is a non-profit. Just keeping the park open and free-of-charge, sunrise to sunset every day of the year, takes $3 million in private donations. But, for Price, there is value in keeping this park alive. “Isn’t that worth a visit?” she asks, looking out over the hundred or so people wandering amongst the plants and the trees, or riding the SeaGlass carousel. “Isn’t that worth a lingering moment?” DT
