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.
