O2 - Issue 2 - (Page 36)

[GREAT OUTDOORS] IN A NUTSHELL Michael Van Valkenburgh consolidates New York into two acres T EARDROP PARK COULD BE MICHAEL VAN Valkenburgh’s love letter to his upstate New York childhood. This magnificent two-acre parcel nestled into a corridor of Battery Park City and bookended by the new Riverhouse condo tower features plant and hardscaping elements native to Van Valkenburgh’s Catskills hometown. The renowned landscape architect confirms that there is some one-to-one correspondence. A dramatic wall of bluestone, which divides the park’s relaxing lawn area from a more playground-like landscape, has been dubbed “The Notch” after a valley cut near the town of Lexington, New York. But, he points out, Teardrop was devised directly by the Battery Park City Authority. The authority “came to us with this idea of condensing, abstracting, and recombining pieces of upstate into an urban park.” “We were a bit taken aback by the notion that one would be asked to deliver the majestic essence and scale of the Catskills or a Dutchess County in such a small space,” Van Valkenburgh continues. “For us, if there is any magic that we brought as designers, it’s the way we used sequencing and—revisiting a Frederick Law Olmsted term—range. Teardrop offers as much experiential range as possible.” Indeed, Teardrop has something for everybody. Lush plantings surround the lawn area, and this perimeter is punctuated by seating, paths, and a miniwetlands for tiptoeing across stones and fallen logs. Walk south through a tunnel in The Notch, and, in an Alice in Wonderland–type moment, you enter a shady idyll in which a long slide, movement-activated water features, and other play opportunities are strewn across dramatic topography. Van Valkenburgh makes reference to Olmsted, the creator of Central Park, for good reason. The concept of synopsizing New York wilderness within city limits “is not new historically,” he says. “One would say that that was what Olmsted was doing, though he had 900 acres.” Besides historic legacy, Teardrop also includes high-tech innovation. When the southernmost component of Teardrop is completed in the Riverhouse courtyard, three heliostats will track the sun’s path, reflecting sunlight downward into the urban glen. It will be the first exterior use of the giant mirrors in North America. Look for it in June 2008. From grassy lawns to stacks of stones, Teardrop Park contains a wide diversity of landscape features, as evidenced by these photos and site plan. TEARDROP PARK IMAGES CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: IMAGE BY PAUL WARCHOL, IMAGE BY ALEX MACLEAN, IMAGE BY PAUL WARCHOL, IMAGE BY ELIZABETH FELICELLA. THE RAMBLE IMAGE COURTESY OF CENTRAL PARK. 36 [ O 2 G R E E N M A G A Z I N E . C O M ] http://O2GREENMAGAZINE.COM

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O2 - Issue 2 Contents Letter Freshpicks Itinerary The Hunt Flight O2 Outer Beauty Fuel 4 Thought Health Tech One to Watch Great Outdoors Features Future Focus Musings

O2 - Issue 2

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