The Ford Foundation for Social Justice headquarters building, designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo & Associates in 1968, included a 9,000 square foot, 160 foot tall Atrium garden designed by Dan Kiley. The Foundation’s mission-driven renovation modernized the building and also included a renovation of the garden to restore the spirit of the original Kiley design. Kiley’s original design intent had been degraded throughout the years due to pests and environmental conditions. Kiley’s design distanced him from the orthogonal layout…

Once completed, the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center and Park in Athens, Greece, will be one of the largest public spaces in Europe planted with only Mediterranean, drought-tolerant plants. At the start of the project, landscape architect Deborah Nevins and the design team were presented with a 40-acre, totally flat, degraded site. The Park now rises over the buildings, approximately 96 feet from the street, allowing the city to have a view of the sea, which was previously blocked by an…

In spring New Yorkers flock to Central Park, the most frequently visited urban park in the United States.  Now, a remarkable new book tells the story of how the great park came to be.  The Central Park Book: Original Designs for New York’s Greatest Treasure  by Cynthia Brenwall (Abrams 2019), features hundreds of color photographs illustrations and plans, including the original winning entry for the park’s design by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calbert Vaux.  With over 65 design projects, from…

DEP is proud to present the first in a series of events for the public, focusing on today’s pressing environmental issues.   Please join DEP and NYCHA on May 11 as they kick-off the series with an in-depth presentation about “Green Infrastructure and Planning for the Future: A Conversation with DEP and NYCHA.”  The panel of experts will address the following topics: Green Infrastructure in NYCHA Developments; Designing for Climate Change: New York City’s Cloudburst Stormwater Management Pilot; Resilient City Planning:…

From once neglected buildings, infrastructure, and parks, designers can create new, dignified spaces that revitalize neighborhoods and improve quality of life for marginalized communities. But can design disrupt the institutions and power structures responsible for neglect and marginalization in the first place? How might designers advance the essential conditions for social resilience, inclusion, and prosperity in our city? This discussion will explore design as an agent of justice and equity in the built environment. From our featured guests, we’ll learn…

William Bryant Logan is an arborist on the faculty at NYBG and the award-winning author of four books. His most recent, Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees, is a poetic and practical global journey to rediscover and celebrate the lost traditions of tree pruning that sustained human life and culture for millennia, a time when the responsible, reciprocal relationship between humans and trees created the healthiest, most sustainable, most diverse woodlands we have ever known. Lecture followed by conversation…

The Westchester County Soil and Water Conservation District invite you to the second in a series of workshops on the regional impacts we can expect from climate change.  June 6 at the Westchester County Center in White Plains.  Programs and Speakers: Transforming Farm and Ecosystem Management for a Changing Climate David W. Wolfe, PhD, Professor, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Cornell Institute for Climate Smart Solutions Managing Forests in a Changing Climate:What the Evidence Suggests Robert K. Davies,…