A flower-filled park on Manhattan’s waterfront celebrates the resilience of the city
The waterfront park on the island of Manhattan
Battery Park, at the foot of the island of Manhattan, was once an urban wasteland: asphalt veined with zigzagging cracks, broken picnic tables slanted on one leg, and benches ravaged by neglect and graffiti. “I was embarrassed as a New Yorker and an American by how shabby and dilapidated the old Battery Park was. It was the first impression of the city and the country for so many tourists,” says Warrie Price, a native Texan who moved to the city in 1972. So she decided to do something about it. In 1994, she founded the Battery Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated, she says, “to curing an urban ill” by doing a green makeover of the 25 acres of public space at the Battery. The centerpiece of her plan: 70,000 square feet of awe-inspiring perennial gardens.
After some fits and starts, Price’s plan finally got some momentum, somewhat ironically, after the 9/11 attacks. It was a classic case of some good coming out of a tragedy. “We wanted to do something to honor the people who survived the attack,” says Price. The Battery, after all, had been a popular escape route that day. In 2002, she hired famed Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf to develop a horticultural master plan for the Battery.
The first step: the 2003 opening of the Gardens of Remembrance, a testament to the 9/11 survivors and their resilient city. Oudolf combined 114 varieties of hybrid perennials and native plants, which made the Conservancy greener by proving to be more sustainable.
The Gardens of Remembrance pay tribute to 9/11.
In 2005, Oudolf unveiled the Battery Bosque (“bosque” is Spanish for “grove of trees”) that features perennial gardens set among 140 London plane trees. The Bosque hosts 34,000 perennial plants, including swamp milkweed, white indigo, ironweed, and sharp-lobed liverleaf.
The biggest challenge for the gardens was the proximity of 11,000 acres of water. Oudolf solved that by planting perennials that would bloom in colorful waves, mimicking the ocean itself. “And our biggest maintenance, from a gardener’s standpoint, is maintaining those divisions,” says Price.
Though most of the perennials bloom throughout the summer and early fall, each season at the Battery offers its own brand of beauty. The dormant period of the winter still shows off the fascinating textures and shapes of the gardens. The Indian spring grass and early bulbs of the spring portend the beauty to come. And the brilliance of the summer and fall brings it all together.
The gardens even have their own watchdog… well, make that watch bird. Zelda, a wild turkey, can be seen on many days strutting her stuff among the gardens in search of a meal of grubs.
Price says the Conservancy has created “a place that makes you feel like you’re not in New York City.” But with its vitality and annual promise of renewal, the Conservancy gardens are very much like the city itself.
The perennial gardens of Battery Park.
For more information, go to www.thebattery.org
