Almost every day I pass by the new Night and Day Condos, a massive structure that runs 18 stories high and towers over McCarren Park. This is known as one of the "finger" buildings, as it sticks up like a finger in a neighborhood of low buildings, and symbolically, they are giving the rest of the neighborhood the finger. The developers recently installed a garden in the back of the building, which gave me pause. There was something so odd and out of place about it.
The garden looked like it should be at a convalescent home in the suburbs.
The rows of Arborvitaes, also known as contractor specials, as they are the cheapest evergreens available, are crammed into soil that's still filled with chunks of cement that will leak toxins into their roots. They have a tendency to turn brown, so this will hurry that process along; the bright red mulch looks neither organic nor modern, just tacky.
The accent tree is a shapeless Spruce--the second cheapest evergreen you can find; and then mono-planting of boxwoods and grass make sure a bird or butterfly will never alight anywhere near the property. They do have a little seating area with benches, though they are so exposed and uninviting, I can't imagine anyone would actually sit there.
The condos aren't cheap, running just a little under $100.00 a square foot. So with 18 floors of condos, each costing around a million dollars, why wouldn't you spend a couple hundred dollars on a dogwood tree or a few perennials? The accent tree should be a gorgeous hinoki cypress or Korean White Pine.
Here's a description of the building from a
Real Estate Agent selling a $950,000 2-bedroom apartment in this building.
"Rising 18 stories, Number Twenty Bayard is the new high point of McCarren Park. As the tallest building on the parks perimeter, this defining addition to the Williamsburg landscape has the most enviable views of Manhattan. With interior designs by Andres Escobar, Number Twenty Bayard suggests a boutique hotel with superior finishes and thoughtful accents."
As I snapped a few photographs of some of the exterior "thoughtful accents", a construction worker started to yell at me to "stop taking photographs of the garden." I yelled back, "Why?" He never answered me, but I really wanted to know. Was I going to steal some of their ideas?
Like their row of Arborvitae:
A place I do go for ideas and inspiration, the Green Dome Community Garden is less than a block away from from the finger Night and Day. It's a tiny space, but one of the nicest small gardens in the city. The dwarf evergreens are varied colors and textures which include Hinoki cypress, blue spruce, white pine, and cascading juniper. Ornamental grasses provide shelter for birds, and you can hear birdsong year round here.
Yuccas and rose hips also provide year round interest. The curving stone paths lead through raised beds of perennials-- in the spring poppies come in at the same time as the iris, butterflies love the Echinacea and purple aster in late summer. There are a few benches tucked between big clusters of lavender and artemisia where you can sit and read a book.
Crocus are in bloom now, and come springtime, it's just a marvel.
Clearly, this has been planted by people understand the poetry of a garden; the other by real estate developers who want to spend the least amount of time and money possible. But making money isn't a bad thing, and in reality, actually creating a beautiful landscape with plants that support bio-diversity, having a variety of ornamental trees, and good design enhances the value of property. Herein lies the difference between Value Added and Staging in landscaping.