Thomas Wirth Associates

Built  in the early 1970’s the park, which is the size of a tennis court, was designed by Sasaki Associates with Tom Wirth as landscape architect. Subsequent to its construction, we have been involved on a yearly basis supervising the pruning the central bosque of trees, and responsible for sustaining the remaining plantings which have been nurtured and replanted over the years in response to the urban microclimate.  The major innovation attributable to the success of the central bosque of honey locust trees is the construction of an elevated structural platform for the plaza space creating one central tree pit in which the 12 trees have been thriving which is unprecedented in NYC.  All the natural systems that nourish trees in nature were designed into the infrastructure including soils, drainage, irrigation, aeration and feeding. We designed new grates around the trees recently installed as a result of the trunks expanding beyond the original granite collars which should allow the trees to grow on for future generations.