Commissioned in the spring of 2006 to redesign the outdoor spaces of an eleven acre urban campus in downtown Brooklyn. The Goal: To establish new hierarchies of circulation and pathways and add two acres of green space.

With assistance from and access to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s archives, 1,100 native plants were identified for consideration and use. “Meadow Fragments” were invented and deployed.

Four fountains were added as well.

The street lamps were selected as they were found to be analogous to those in New York City

at the dawn of the 20th century.

Going on a hunch, and borrowing a lesson on color interaction from Josef Albers, pigmented concrete was used. A muted yellowish-orarge was selected.

Completed Spring 2007

Liner Notes(marginalia): Acknowledging Influences From:

*Steely Dan: ‘Cant Buy A Thrill’: “Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me)”

*The Electric Guitar: A Les Paul Electric (a broken one too)

Ancient Greek Theater At Epidaurus

*The Brooklyn Botanic Garden Archives: Excerpts from a diary of an early expedition into Brooklyn circa late 1600’s:

“Mulberry, persimmons, grapes, plums, and fields red with strawberries.”

“miniture prairies, devoid of trees, and having a dark colored surface soil; and having undergone a certain rude

culture by the Indians, were ready, without much previous toil, for the plough.”

Svenson, Henry K. “The Early Vegetation of Long Island” in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record. V.25:n.3. 1936.

Stiles, Henry R. “A History of The City of Brooklyn” v.1. p.23. Brooklyn. 1867.

From time to time I’m asked what the campus looked like before: I simply reply that it reminded me of landscapes from, ‘A Clockwork Orange’.

(the vestigial/residual failures of modernism)

sun on the garden

wasn’t in a dream

wasn’t just a dream

                   -AKG