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Lynden Miller : The vigilance man who saved New York ’s public park
To comprehend Lynden Miller ’s impact on New York City , just visit one of the many public garden she has restored - from the Conservatory Garden at the northerly last of Central Park at 105th Street and 5th Avenue , to Bryant Park behind the great Carrere & Hastings - design New York Public Library , to Madison Square Park and Wagner Park in Battery Park City , to repossess and raise the former working waterfront of Red Hook , Brooklyn , where the grandiose bloom of ‘ Lord Baltimore ’ hibiscus beckon from a block away . Witnessing the fantastical , horticultural enthusiasm that Miller has brought back to much of New York over the past 25 class , it is hard to imagine what those Mungo Park were reduced to before she began her unwearying renovation cause . In most instances , flowers , shrub and modest tree had all but disappeared , leave behind not much more than trash - strewn lawn and a declining canopy of trees .
Today , these gardens embrace a painterly pallet of plantings that invite citizenry back into public spaces - and show that the reclamation of urban park helps to renovate neighborhoods , encourage touristry , radically trim crime , and just as radically increase real - demesne value . It ’s clear : regenerate our nation ’s parks is good for business and skillful for people . Miller ’s approach path has been infectious , determine off public park revitalization from Chicago ’s Michigan Avenue to San Francisco ’s Union Square .
Miller ’s landscapes bring back memory of Olde New York captured in the impressionistic painting of Childe Hassam and Ernest Lawson . As with these artists who found stirring in New York City ’s picturesque dark-green space , such as Union Square and Madison Square Park , Miller has taught us to see these space anew , in part by reinterpreting the late nineteenth - century exercise of seasonal exhibit planting , often pertain to as “ bedding out . ” Likewise , in her 2002 project at The New York Botanical Garden , where she redesigned the perennial borders , and the 260 - foot - long Ladies Border along the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory , she both fascinate the planting saint of the Country Place Era ( 1890 - 1940 ) and pushed the horticultural boundaries by introducing magnolia , camellia , nandina , and mahonia .
For all the beauty of her garden plantings , there is always a sociopolitical purport behind Miller ’s work , which is perhaps most obvious in “ The Daffodil Project , ” which she spearheaded with the Dutch bulb grower Hans van Waardenburg . On September 12 , 2001 , Miller receive a fax from him expressing his understanding for New York City and a wish to help . figure out with the Parks Department beginning in the downslope of 2001 , thousands of voluntary have plant the nearly 5 million daffodils that Van Waardenburg has donate to the metropolis since that clock time , and which now bloom in laurels of those who died on 9/11 and beautify some 1,000 locations around the urban center .
Lynden Miller should be recognized as the tastemaker for the next genesis , which views our urban landscapes and open spaces as its canvas . For more information on Lynden Miller seepublicgardendesign.com
