Boston Flora

Tag: Ford Foundation

  • Sunday, April 23, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – Urban Forests: A Natural History of Trees and People in the American Cityscape

    Urban Forests is a celebration of urban trees and the Americans – presidents, plant explorers, visionaries, citizen activists, scientists, nurserymen, and tree nerds – whose arboreal passions have shaped and ornamented the nation’s cities, from Jefferson’s day to the present.

    Jill Jonnes is the author of Urban Forests, Conquering Gotham, Empires of Light, and South Bronx Rising. She is the founder of the Baltimore Tree Trust. She was named a National Endowment for the Humanities scholar and has received several grants from the Ford Foundation. She will speak on Sunday, April 23 from 1 – 2 at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston. THBG members $7, nonmembers $20. Register online at https://towerhillbg.thankyou4caring.org/pages/event-registration-form—urban-forests-a-natural-history-of-trees-and-people-in-the-american-cityscape-talk–book-signing

  • Thursday, June 9, 11:00 am – 3:30 pm – Madcap Midtown Tour of Pocket Parks in NYC

    Thursday, June 9, 11:00 am – 3:30 pm – Madcap Midtown Tour of Pocket Parks in NYC

    Join the Berkshire Botanical Garden and award-winning landscape architect David Dew Bruner for a lively walking tour of midtown Manhattan with a focus on open spaces and vest-pocket parks. Many of the spaces this class will explore are known as mitigation spaces and were acquired by the city of New York from developers who were given zoning variances. These parks contribute small but important open spaces throughout midtown. Led by the former deputy administrator of Riverside Park, this class (limited in size by the nature of the tour) will visit these spaces, as well as a few accessible private garden spaces. Starting at Grand Central Station, the group then heads northward through midtown to a multitude of gardens and open spaces, including ones at the Ford Foundation, Grace Plaza, Rockefeller Center, Greenacres Park (pictured), the Villard Houses, Paley Park, and Exxon Passageway, grabbing a quick lunch along the way before returning to Grand Central Station. This will be a long and rewarding day, but participants should be prepared to walk for the majority of the afternoon with occasional rests on benches at some of the sites.

    David Dew Bruner, ASLA, is an award-winning landscape architect and fine artist with over 35 years of experience, ranging from Deputy Administrator of Riverside Park, NYC, to amusement park design, historical restoration, and all scales of residential design. Originally from New Orleans, he has a BLA and a BFA from LSU as well as a MLA from the University of Massachusetts.

    Participants will have the option to meet at Grand Central Station at 11 am or to carpool with BBG trip-leader Elisabeth Cary to Wassaic, NY, and take Metro-North to Grand Central Terminal at 8:25 am, returning to Wassaic at approximately 5:50 pm.

    Cost of program ($40 for BBG members, $45 for nonmembers) does not include train fare or lunch.  Image from www.ny.curbed.com.

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