Alice's Garden Travel Buzz » New York

The High Line: New York City

Alice Joyce — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:50:59 +0000

Section 2 Now Open!: High Line – New York City (Photo: iwan)

: The Standard Hotel at The High Line (Photo: Alice Joyce)

The High Line at Gansevoort and West 13th Street, straddled by The Standard Hotel

Live WebCam – The Standard

: High Line photo: stevenc_in_nyc

The High Line!

Watch a brilliant video posted on YouTube to announce the event.

Piet OudolfLink to another radiant New York City destination by Dutch designer, Piet Ouldolf: The Battery Gardens

: Designer Piet Oudolf Photo: the High Line

A Place for Reflection and Dialogue: Eliasson Installation – Bard College

Alice Joyce — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:58:58 +0000

Parliament of Reality – A permanent installation by artist Olafur Eliasson …

: Olafur Eliasson Installation – Deborah Esrick photo

in the Hudson River Valley. In this environmental artwork – completed between 2006-2009 – Eliasson achieves a clarity of design with elements focusing upon an island of bluestone encircled by a pond. Commissioned for the Bard College campus in upstate New York by the Center for Curatorial Studies, the setting is embraced by a ring of 24 trees.

: Eliasson Installation at Bard College – Deborah Esrick photo

Access to the island is via a bridgeway covered by a steel latticework passage.

: Parliament of Reality – Photo: Olafur Eliasson Studio

In the center of the pond, the island’s circular form resonates with distinctive stone paving, forming a 12-point pattern that references the meridian lines of nautical charts and the compass.

Eliasson Installation: Deborah Esrick Photo

Born in Denmark to Icelandic parents, Olafur Eliasson found inspiration for the work in the Icelandic Parliament: the Althingi.

: Eliasson Installation – Photo: Bess Reynolds

The Parliament of Reality is located on the north end of Bard’s campus, in a field near the Frank Gehry-designed Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts building.

: Eliasson Installation Detail – flickr photo by yooperann

: Eliasson’s Parliament of Reality – Photo: Bess Reynolds

Ouldolf’s Radiant Battery Gardens .. New York

Alice Joyce — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:27:33 +0000

New York City - Battery Park Gardens

Battery Bosque - Stony Creek granite bench (Alice Joyce photo)

At the southwestern tip of Manhattan, the gardens of Historic Battery Park rise up from a once neglected area of New York City. Since the completion of the Battery gardens, its rebirth so to speak in 2005, much has been written about the exuberant, flower-filled planting plan created by the brilliant Dutch plantsman, Piet Oudolf.

The Battery Bosque (Alice Joyce photo)

A sunlit area – The Gardens of Remembrance – pays tribute to those who perished on 9/11, and to the survivors who gathered here. Stony Creek – a granite bench runs 1,500 feet along the length of the promenade, configured as the “prow of Manhattan Island.”

Battery Conservancy photo

Parthenium integrifolium

Panicum ‘Dallas Blues’ & Helenium ‘Rubinzwerg’

Bosque Garden (Battery Conservancy photo)

The Battery is built on top of 3 subway lines and 2 major transportation tunnels. The Oudolf-designed gardens comprise 4 acres, while a the 6-acre Perimeter Bikeway garden should be completed in 2012.

Allium (Alice Joyce photo)

Epimedium .. Battery Bosque (Alice Joyce photo)

The Battery landscape is maintained free of chemicals and fertilizers. A wealth of woodland and prairie plants are nurtured within these 4 acres, to produce an astounding annual surplus of 75,000 perennial plants that can be planted in other public gardens in New York City. In essence, the parkland is a 100 per cent sustainable farm! The history of this land goes back hundreds of years to the Dutch settlers, and earlier still, to the region’s Native Americans.

Swathes of Alliums - Bosque Garden The Battery Conservancy photo

Swathes of Allium ‘Globemaster’ & Allium ‘Purple Sensation’commingle in the Bosque gardens with drifts of complementary perennials; key elements in an Oudolf design, which preserved a stately grove of plane trees.

Gardens of Remembrance - Battery Conservancy photo

In August, Astrantia ‘Roma emerges along with Sanguisorba ‘Red Thunder,’ and Tricyrtis ‘Togen.’ Moving on to Fall, the choice cultivars & species include a host of Asters, Korean feather reed grass, & Panicum v. ’Shenandoah.’ November brings the golden leaves of Ginkgo, fall crocuses, the textural wands of Miscanthus and wispy muhly grass.

Gardens of Remembrance - Battery Conservancy photo

Battery Gardens … Landscape Architects: Saratoga Associates
Garden Designer: Piet Oudolf

Cherry Blossom Cascade .. Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Alice Joyce — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:23:42 +0000

A much anticipated annual garden event…

…the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Sakura Matsuri cherry blossom festival takes place May 1 & 2 this year: Visit the BBG web site for details.

Springtime Vista - Brooklyn Botanic Garden (ALICE JOYCE photo)

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is an especially alluring destination in Spring, when the green haven of the 2-acre Native Flora Garden captivates the senses with arrays of Trillium species, Clematis, bellworts (Uvularia) and shooting stars, among the woodlanders emerging in April and May.

The Garden is positively aglow in the Cherry Esplanade, Japanese Garden, and Daffodil Hill area while avenues of cherry trees are blooming. I enjoyed a ramble through the gardens with Scot Medbury, President of the BBG and former director of the San Francisco Botanical Garden/Conservatory of Flowers, and was delighted to be introduced to Uli Lorimer, curator of the Native Flora collection.

The botanically inclined will find fetching displays decorating the gardens, like the sight of fallen petals floating on the pond, as captivating to the eyes as the bounteous, blowsy blossoms themselves. At this tine of year, there are fragrant lilacs, exuberant azaleas, and a cacophony of frilly peonies, along with a wisteria-draped pergola that signals the coming to life of the Cranford Rose Garden. Plan a summer visit and you’ll be swept away by the fragrance that envelops you in this classic, formal setting.

Slipper Orchid - Cypripedium – below (Alice Joyce photo)

Click on the Brooklyn Botanic Garden map to see the garden’s layout, plant collections, and design features.