Photo Credit: Suki Choe for Quennell Rothschild and Partners
Dramatically sited at the southern tip of Manhattan where the East River and Hudson River converge into New York Harbor, The Battery is where New York City began. With its views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the 25-acre park is a threshold between land and sea, a gateway to symbols of our national identity, a major transportation hub, and a neighbor to the Financial District. The park welcomes 7-million people a year—from neighborhood, city, nation, and globe—who come to this oasis of lush plantings and centenarian trees to catch a ferry, ride the SeaGlass carousel, hear a concert, or simply gaze at the water.
The park wasn’t always so agreeable. Anyone who was there in the 1980s (along with Madonna, in Desperately Seeking Susan) will remember holes in the seawall fence that small children could fall through, expanses of collapsing, patched asphalt without a blade of grass in sight, rusty barrels, seat-less benches, and arid fountains.
Today, thanks to 22 years of effort from The Battery Conservancy, the City of New York, and a team of designers led by the landscape architecture firm Quennell Rothschild & Partners, that area is only a memory. It’s been replaced with a culturally rich, environmentally responsible park that pays respect to nearly 400 years of history while accommodating the needs of 21st-century New Yorkers and visitors.