High Line, My Line

There's the High Line, down in Manhattan. . .

. . .nicely, cultivated, manicured

destination to millions of visitors each year. . .

. . .but up in the Bronx

                              there's also MY line!

In comparison, a bit scraggly perhaps. . .

. . .but at the end of a long day,

a most welcome destination for this daily commuter!

Elevated Waterway

Over the past few years, several of the stations on the elevated portion of the Bronx IRT 6 line have undergone renovations.

As these were completed, panels of artwork were also installed making the stations a little more cheery.


This artwork consists of either colorfully tiled murals or whimsical metal sculptures.  My favorite is the "Cross-Bronx Waterway" sculpture, located at the Middletown Road station.  The artists are Amanda Schachter and Alexander Levi of SLO Architecture, commissioned by MTA Arts & Design as part of the NYC Transit Rehabilitation program.


Their piece pays homage both to the train's course as it navigates its way across the borough, while also traversing parts of the Pelham Bay watershed, which includes the Hutchinson River,  Westchester Creek, and Bronx River waterways, before reaching the Harlem River as it crosses into Manhattan.

The sculpted panels are mounted in such a way that when standing on the platform it is as if you are underwater looking up at items floating on the surface.

I think this is a really fun, creative way to expose aspects of the Bronx's ecology
to the public that they typically don't see or even think about
as they commute back and forth to work or school.

I can tell you it has certainly made my otherwise long,
daily commute a little more delightful!

In the Heart of Midtown...

. . .a different kind of pulse.

Carved in Stone

Mixed Use

GuestPeek: Butterfly Garden

My friend Karen and her daughter, Kalena created a butterfly garden in their back yard!

Karen is a Librarian (woo hoo!) at Riverview Branch Library in Florida and she'd hosted a Master Gardener program on butterfly gardens at her branch a couple of months ago. She thought it sounded like an easy gardening project for non-gardeners as well as being good for the environment, so decided to gave it a try!
 

Why is this exciting?

Due to destruction of their native habitats or the plants they eat, butterfly populations are decreasing or even going extinct. The creation of a butterfly garden represents an intentional act to try and create or restore habitats favorable to their life cycle and survival. 

Since butterflies also happen to be flower and plant pollinators, they are an essential part of the food cycle. Environments that attract butterflies also tend to attract other types of insect pollinators. 

Basically, if WE want to keep eating,
we need the pollinators!

As you can see, Karen and Kalena already have a few visitors!

Hat tip to Karen and Kalena for taking on this project, and thanks so much for sharing, with us here at Permie Peeks! If you live down in that area, and want to learn more about the Master Garden Extension programs, click here.

Shared aVenues

Restaurant Greens

Muscota Marsh: A "Meeting" Place

At the northern tip of Manhattan lies the Muscota Marsh.

It is a place of many "meetings". . .

where land MEETS water. . .
     . . .the Munsee tribe of the Lenape Indians fished, farmed and hunted there. "Muscota" is a Lenape word meaning "meadow by the water" or "where the reeds grow" (see Thomas Rainer's wonderful blog post, Muscota Marsh Park: A Lucid View of Troubled Waters for an in depth discussion of the marsh's cultural impact and history).

where fresh and salt waters MIX. . .

     . . . or estuaries-- a place where rivers, streams, creeks, etc., empty out into the sea or the ocean. They are some of the most rich, diverse and productive of natural habitats.

For the Lenape, the marsh was a place abundant in oysters, clams, crabs and fish. They fashioned the reeds growing there, into "weirs" to trap the fish.

where the northern tip of Manhattan KISSES the western edge of the Bronx. . .
     . . .in the time of the Lenape, at tide's ebb, they could walk across the mudflats between the two land masses.  Centuries later it would be dredged to create the Harlem River Shipping Canal, thus effectively and finally separating them.

where culture and history CLASH. . .
     . . .here the Lenape would encounter the Dutch. And, like the insistent pull of the tide, so too would begin the  inexorable shift from one way of life to another. . .the Dutch gave the waterways bounding Manhattan their own names. . .Spuyten Duvil Creek. . .the Harlem River, which flow into each other there.

and, most recently, where Columbia University 

ENCROACHES upon the surrounding community. . .

     . . .the restoration of this green space is an amenity received through a community benefits agreement, in return for allowing Columbia to build a stadium and athletic center, down the street.

In this place of many meetings, an attempt has been made 

to reconnect the community to the waterfront. . .

the re-intersection of the urban and natural worlds.

Will it be successful? Only time will tell.

Field of Favors

In her art installation "Favors", Queens based artist, Priscilla Stadler invited New Yorkers to challenge the stereotype that they are cold, rude and uncaring by asking them to do favors for friends, family and even strangers, or to observe and note others doing these things.

Then, she asked them to describe these "acts of kindness" in a single sentence and send them to her, which she later transcribed onto green paper spirals.


Finally, she suspended them, much like hanging vines, from the ceiling of a Long Island City  gallery (the Space Gallery).


She called this "The Field of Favors".

What I found particularly interesting about this project was the way it rendered the abstract,

     that is, those mechanisms which contribute to effective and resilient social systems

                        relationships. . .

                              their nature and quality. . .

                                        often defined by reciprocity and inter-dependency. . .

into a tangible and collective, community experience!

Leave it to the artists!

Competition. . .

. . .or symbiosis?

Puttin' On the Ritz!

Outside-In

Festive on Fifth

Where the Wild Things Are...

First there was The Cube...

. . . however, there are also lush planters

. . .strategically placed along the pedestrian plazas.









They provide a living, green curtain, separating










plaza visitors from the bustling mid-town, Broadway traffic.

Aaaahhhh....small delights!

Point of Departure

Greenery: Cubed & Squared

Have we been invaded...!? 

No! 

It's a public art installation created by New York based environmental artists, Patricia Leighton and Del Geist.   


Earlier this summer, seven growing sculptures were placed in the pedestrian plazas along Broadway, between Times Square and 34th Street.  The sculptures vary in height between 10 and 12 feet and are propped up on three poles, in order to display each cube's growing greenery.

According to the artists:

"The raised cubes visually and contextually elevate nature, leading the eye upwards and creating a contemplative natural presence within the vibrant core of New York’s Fashion District. . ."

and

". . . We're elevating nature in relation to the vertical spaces in our city."

On display through November 2012. . .Check it out for yourself!

Beantown Serenity

A couple of weeks ago, I spent a few days at a conference in Boston.

Respite. .  .

Amidst the Prudential Center's complex comprising of 3.2 million sf of office, retail, hotels and a ginormous convention center, was this wonderful little open air park and garden. Read more about it here.

click image to enlarge

In NYC, during a comparable weekday, a delightful place such as this would have been filled to the brim with people, but in Boston (at least while I was there), incredibly, it was almost always empty.  Go figure!

. . .Habitat

It combined both straight edges along with curvy, rounded ones. . .and had two fountains (nice Feng Shui!), one in the shape of a spiral!

But what I found really exciting were the

         beautiful plantings

                           gently sloping grass area

                                                           winding gravel pathway

                                                                                      slate pavers

. . . Permeable Paradise!