Daily Archives: May 20, 2019

Thursday, June 6, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm – Battery Park City Walking Field Study: Garden Designers Showcase

by

This Berkshire Botanical Garden program on June 6 will begin at Grand Central Station, NYC. Participants will have the option to meet at Grand Central Station at 11 am or to carpool with BBG staff to Wassaic NY and take Metro North to GCT departing from Wassaic at 8:28 am returning to Wassaic approximately 6:45 pm. Cost of program does not include train fare to NYC or lunch.

Join the staff of the Berkshire Botanical Garden for a visit to Battery Park City, located at the tip of Manhattan. We will tour this extensive landscape—perhaps one of the most concentrated parklands in America—with our engaging instructor David Dew Bruner, who will focus on design. We will visit areas of the park including Michael Van Valkenburgh’s Teardrop Park, Oehme van Sweden’s Rockefeller Park, two gardens designed by Lynden Miller, and landscapes by Olin Partnership and other exceptional designers. In addition to these amazing gardens, there is abundant public art to view, including the Irish Hunger Memorial designed by Brian Tolle, the magnificent “Ice Wall” by Ann Hamilton and Michael Mercii, and sculptures by Jim Dine, Louise Bourgeois and many more.

Dress for the weather, rain or shine, and bring a water bottle and bagged lunch or plan to buy your own. BBG member price $70, nonmembers $85.

Register online at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/battery-park-city-walking-field-study-garden-designers-showcase

Solar Power at the Arnold Arboretum

by

In 2016. the Arboretum launched a major initiative to reduce emissions and cut energy costs with the installation of two solar arrays to help power the Hunnewell Building and Dana Greenhouses. In 2019, the Arboretum broke ground on the Weld Hill Solar Project, which contains 1,297 solar panels, generates more than 25% of the energy required annually to support research and education at the Weld Hill Research Building, contains a unique battery storage array to reduce peak demand on the local electrical grid, and keeps the equivalent of 401 metric tons of carbon out of the atmosphere each year.

To support local insect biodiversity in the face of global insect decline, the project design incorporates a native-focused pollinator meadow beneath the panel arrays, with wild-collected plant material sourced and propagated by the Arboretum staff. Together, the Weld Hill solar/battery array and pollinator meadow will serve ongoing education programs focused on climate change, renewable energy, and sustainable design.

Help power world-class research, and be a part of the Arnold Arboretum’s legacy of environmental stewardship. Sponsor a panel for $1,000. For more information, email Janetta Stringfellow, Director of Development, at 617-384-5043, or email her at janetta_stringfellow@harvard.edu.