Urban Gardening on a Grand Scale
By Michael Nolan
The New York Times carried an article on April 20th – no doubt in homage to Earth Day – that featured the story of how one developer in the Big Apple is helping to bring nature back to the city.
Tishman Speyer, who bought the huge Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village apartment complexes from MetLife in 2006, is now spearheading one of the largest landscaping projects in the area. According to Speyer’s lead gardener Erik Pauzé, the project will encompass some 60 to 80 acres near the East River.
According to the story there will be over 200,000 plants involved, including 10,000 trees of all varieties. Project Managers hope to have this tremendous urban gardening work completed by June 30th, and it’s a good thing that there is no shortage of urban gardeners in the area willing to lend a hand! An average of 120 people are said to be working on the collective sites on any given day.
Everything is bigger in New York City, especially the buildings. The two apartment complexes account for a total of 110 buildings on nearly ten blocks. By May 11th of this year, project workers will have installed 100 hanging baskets and an astounding 20,000 annuals, making this a beautiful Mother’s Day for the thousands of residents.
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