1. home and garden

N E W YOR K R E S TOR AT I ON P ROJ E C T ( N Y R P )
A N O N - P R O F I T O R G A N I Z AT I O N D E D I C AT E D T O T R A N SF O R M I N G O P E N SPAC E I N U N D E R SE RV E D C O M M U N I T I E S T O C R E AT E A G R E E N E R , M O R E SU S TA I NA B L E N EW YO R K C I T Y.
FA L L /W INT E R 2013
“AU T UM N I S A SE C O N D SP R I N G W H E N EV E RY L E A F I S A F L OW E R .” – A L B E RT C A M U S
VO LUM E T H I RT E E N , I S SU E T WO
Planting Trees for a Resilient New York
PHOTO: JONATHAN PUSHNIK
A Letter
From Bette
Can you believe it? MillionTreesNYC is way ahead of
schedule. We initially planned
to hit our goal by 2017, but our
1 millionth new tree will hit the
ground rising by 2015. We need
to find a special place for it. Any
suggestions will be welcome!
Our success owes much
credit and many thanks to TD
Bank and Toyota, whose generous support is providing a big
boost. And it’s not just the sheer
number of trees we’re gratified
by. The community spirit has
been amazing too. By the end
of November, NYRP will have
partnered with 40-plus community groups in this fall’s
record-setting giveaway of free
young trees. We’re making a lot
of great new friends.
Trees are front-page news —
but they’re only the beginning.
I hope you enjoy all we have to
show and tell in this issue of
Good Dirt. Aloha!
“…even more important is stewarding those new trees during their first
two years in the ground. Like all young New Yorkers, they need care and
attention to thrive.” – Chris Vanterpool, NYRP Director of Capital Administration
PHOTOS: BR AD HAMILTON
@BetteMidler
Truly “Friends of the Environment,” TD Bank employees helped plant trees in Sandy-damaged Far Rockaway during the TD Tree Days this fall.
Proud! @NYRP’s Bridge
Plaza Com. Garden has
won 1st place as Garden
Streetscape in the Greenest Block in Bklyn award!
Thnx @bklynbotanic!
New York continues to recover
from Hurricane Sandy, but it’s
not just the built environment
that needs repair. Sandy toppled
tens of thousands of trees in New
York City. Since then, even more
trees have succumbed to the
long-term effects of floodwater.
As the City’s Special Initiative for Building and Resiliency
has noted, parks and other
open space are “the first line of
defense” and “serve an important protective purpose” by
retaining stormwater and buffering communities. Caring for
existing trees and planting new
ones is essential to making New
York City more resilient and
ready for future storms.
As lead partner of the MillionTreesNYC initiative, we
advance this effort with every
tree we plant, and thousands
more are going into the ground
this fall. Since Sandy, we’ve conducted dozens of tree-planting
Switch to
Paperless Billing
If you are a Con Edison customer, help support NYRP and
the MillionTreesNYC initiative
by switching to e*Bill. You save
trees by going paperless and
you help us plant more – Con
Edison donates $1 to NYRP for
every switch.
Visit www.coned.com/ebill.
projects in the hardest-hit areas.
In September and early October,
our “TD Tree Days,” supported by
TD Bank, drew volunteers to help
plant over 500 trees across the five
boroughs, at sites including P.S.
56 in Staten Island and a “beachto-bay” corridor in Far Rockaway,
Queens.
The New York City Housing
Authority (NYCHA) requested
special help to restore tree canopy
lost to the storm in southern
Brooklyn, and we’ll be planting
140 trees across 5 NYCHA properties in Coney Island this fall.
As part of the annual American
Express “Serve2Gether Day,” we’ll
plant trees at Surfside Gardens
House, Gravesend Houses, Coney
Island Houses, and others. We
are receiving additional generous
support from the Mayor’s Fund to
Advance New York City for this
work, as well as invaluable assistance from volunteers from all
corners of the city.
“Planting trees is extremely
important to protecting New
York City in the face of climate
change,” says Christopher Vanterpool, NYRP Director of Capital
Administration, “but even more
important is stewarding those
new trees during their first two
years in the ground. Like all
young New Yorkers, they need
care and attention to thrive.”
Largest Fall
Giveaway Yet,
Over 5,000
New Trees Find
Homes
We’re ramping up tree giveaways, starting with our
biggest fall season—ever. For
the next few years, our tree
giveaways are doubling in
trees. If you missed out this
fall, stay tuned for next spring!
PHOTO: DESHAUN WRIGHT
N E W YOR K R E S TOR AT I ON P ROJ E C T ( N Y R P )
R EINV EN TING T HE
Garden Casita
Willis Avenue Community Garden
PHOTO: DESHAUN WRIGHT
Casita means “little house” in Spanish. For New York City
community gardeners, the word has extra special meaning—a cozy refuge surrounded by green, where community
members gather for music, meals, or a game of dominoes.
Casitas are for storing garden tools, but they’re also where
important cultural ties are built and shared.
In the coming months, NYRP
is rolling out a new casita that
preserves the tradition while
innovating the form for greater
flexibility and functionality, using
off-the-shelf materials that can
stand up to urban life. The casita
“kit-of-parts” is a modular structure with a simple layout based on
a 12-by-12-foot cube. Gardeners
can customize their casitas over
time, enlarging the structure or
scaling it back with the changing
needs of the community. The goal
of the modular design is to adapt
to a range of social and environmental needs within each garden
and the larger communities they
serve, with the flexibility to be
realized in any of NYRP’s 52 community garden sites.
The kit-of-parts is also designed
for energy-efficiency and sustainability. Gardeners can opt for
roofs with solar panels and a
rainwater collection system. Siding can accommodate trellises
for vertical gardening. Gardeners
can make these modifications
themselves, with only minimal
assistance from NYRP. Community meals are a top priority for
many gardens, and the new casitas
will feature multipurpose kitchen
options, from simple counters for
food prep to sinks and extendable
grilling elements.
NYRP is piloting the casita in
our Willis Avenue Community
Garden in the South Bronx, a
well-used space that is currently
undergoing a complete renovation. Project partners include the
Urban Air Foundation, a consortium of professionals in the
green technology, real estate, and
hotel industries who are generously funding the kit-of-parts.
The Mexico City/NYC–based
architecture firm Ten Arquitectos,
founded by renowned architect
Enrique Norten, is designing the
prototype, and international engineering experts Buro Happold are
providing structural and electrical
guidance.
The innovative, flexible design
of the casita demonstrates how
green infrastructure can increase
resiliency, build community, and
make our gardens more beautiful.
Follow the Willis Avenue Community Garden renovation online
at www.facebook.com/nyrpgreen.
Potential models of the Willis Avenue Community Garden and Casita were
reviewed with community members for input and feedback. RENDERINGS: NYRP
NYRP Launches Design Competition to Create Storm-Resilient
Outdoor Classroom and Boating Facility
In keeping with Mayor Bloomberg’s
report on recommendations to increase
resiliency of infrastructure citywide,
“A Stronger, More Resilient New York,”
we’ve invited eight emerging NYC-based
architecture firms to participate in the
EDGE/ucation Pavilion Design Competition, to compete for the chance to create
a state-of-the-art, flood-resistant outdoor
recreation and learning center at Sherman Creek Park along the Harlem River
in Northern Manhattan.
The winning design will turn the flood
plain into a storm-resistant, interactive
outdoor classroom, where NYRP educators can expand programming with
activities such as bird-watching, bog
and wetland exploration and oyster gardening. Stay tuned as we announce the
winner this winter!
Design competitors tour the site.
PHOTO: DESHAUN WRIGHT
The future site, hidden under piles of trash and debris.
PHOTO: DESHAUN WRIGHT
G O OD DI RT FA L L / W I N T E R 2 0 1 3
Pictured at the Gil Hodges Community Garden Ribbon-Cutting are (l to r) NYRP Executive Director Amy Freitag, State Senator Eric Adams, Margot Walker (with NYC DEP’s Green Infrastructure team),
President of Jo Malone London Maureen Case, Assemblywoman Joan Millman, and NYRP Founder Bette Midler. PHOTO: MIA MCDONALD
Gil Hodges Community Garden Renovation
Serves as Model for NYC’s Green Infrastructure
Thanks to generous supporters Jo Malone
London and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP),
the Gil Hodges Community Garden is
the first of NYRP’s community gardens
to implement a storm water management
system. This system, including bioswales,
rain gardens and permeable pavers,
improves local water quality. Efficiently
capturing storm water runoff, these
features prevent the sewer from overloading with polluted water and draining
untreated into the nearby Gowanus
Canal—protecting the vulnerable waterway. If every New York City green space
incorporated storm water management
systems, imagine how much cleaner the
natural bodies of water surrounding New
York City would be.
BEFORE
AFTER
(above) These before and after photos show the garden’s amazing transformation. PHOTOS: ROB STEPHENSON (below) NYRP’s Education
Manager Mya Jenkins leads a class of students from the local elementary school in exploring the garden’s greens. PHOTO: MIA MCDONALD
You Can Adopt a
Garden Too
NYRP is embarking on a campaign to have
all 52 of our gardens adopted by 2015. That
means we have 26 gardens available for
adoption over the next two years. If you
are interested in making an indelible mark
on NYC, contact Karen Dumonet for more
information at [email protected].
N E W YOR K R E S TOR AT I ON P ROJ E C T ( N Y R P )
Environmental resilience is inherently tied to social resilience.
Get Involved
STAY IN THE KNOW
Sign up for our e-Newsletter
at nyrp.org to stay up to
date on news from NYRP
including our free programs,
volunteer opportunities and
greening projects.

NYRP Board of Trustees
Bette Midler
Founder
Benjamin F. Needell Esq.
Chairman
Ellen Levine
Darcy A. Stacom
Vice Presidents
Sarah E. Nash
Secretary & Treasurer
NYRP Board Member Darcy Stacom (center) and her CBRE team with local community members at Crystal Wells Community Garden.
PHOTO: DESHAUN WRIGHT
NYRP Board Members Take Action and Dig In
NYRP’s board members Todd DeGarmo, CEO
of STUDIOS Architecture, and Darcy Stacom,
Vice Chairman of CBRE, rallied their respective troops and brought them out to volunteer
with NYRP. STUDIOS Architecture employees rolled up their sleeves, braved the rain,
and planted 40 much-needed trees in the
badly damaged Rockaways. CBRE employees
endured the intense heat during the heart of
summer to create new planting beds, move
four cubic yards of woodchips and remove a
great amount of debris from the Crystal Wells
Community Garden in East New York. For
more information on hosting a corporate volunteer day, contact Cait LaMorte at clamorte@
nyrp.org.
NYRP Chairman’s Council
STUDIOS Architecture employees spend a rainy day planting trees in Far
Rockaway. PHOTO: GEOFFRE Y GLICK
A Piano Legend Gets a Green Makeover
Since 1870, Astoria has been
famous for the grand pianos
manufactured at Steinway &
Sons. The company’s factory on
19th Avenue, however, is part of a
sprawling industrial district that
is one of the hottest and grittiest tracts of concrete in Western
Queens. In the coming months,
NYRP will remedy some of this
“urban heat island effect” by
greening the Steinway parking
lot. Designed by landscape architect Andrew Moore of Quennell
Rothschild & Partners, the project
will feature 30–40 shade trees
planted throughout the lot as
well as bioswales installed around
Linda Allard Gallen
David Barger
Adrian Benepe
Ellen Crehan-Corwin
Todd DeGarmo
Edmund D. Hollander, FASLA
Michael Kors
Patricia Salas Pineda
Maria Rodale
Charles Sussman
Jann S. Wenner
Ann Ziff
Hon. Veronica M. White
ex-officio
Diane Brownstone
Lisa Caputo Morris
Vishaan Chakrabarti
Alexandra M. Cohen
Douglas Durst
Adam R. Flatto
Amy Goldman Fowler
Tim Gunn
Jacqueline Hernández
Peter Jueptner
Yoko Ono Lennon
Timothy J. McClimon
James L. Nederlander
Margo MacNabb Nederlander
Josh Sirefman
Executive Director
Amy Freitag

the perimeter to absorb storm
water. Bioswales capture runoff
and divert hundreds of gallons
of untreated water annually from
City sewers that would otherwise end up in local waterways,
like neighboring Luyster Creek.
Showcasing an adaptable and
cost-effective model for renovating parking lots without losing
parking spaces, the Steinway project is supported by the City Parks
Foundation through the North
Star Fund’s Greening Western
Queens Fund, an initiative to
invest in energy-efficiency and
environmental efforts.
Thank you to our
corporate sponsors:
MillionTreesNYC Lead Sponsors
MillionTreesNYC Supporters
NYRP Education Sponsor
RENDERING: NYRP
Experience New Leaf’s Old World Charm
this Winter
Famous for its outdoor patio during the spring
and summer seasons, New Leaf holds its own
unique charm during the fall and winter
months. Nestled within Fort Tryon Park, the
restaurant evokes the cozy warmth of a country cottage, far outside the bustle of New York
City—it’s easy to forget that you’re still in Manhattan. Visit newleafrestaurant.com to make
your reservation.
NYRP’s Book Corner
Next New York
Available online: nextnewyork.org
Next New York, released by the Forum for
Urban Design, is a compilation of forty
proposals demonstrating bold visions
for a more competitive, livable and sustainable New York—including one from
NYRP’s Sr. VP of Programs, Deborah
Marton.
Brava, Deborah!
254 WEST 31ST STREET,
10TH FLOOR
NEW YORK, NY 10001
TEL 212.333.2552
FAX 212.333.3886
[email protected]