Nature often inspires poems, so it's only natural that the city's latest nature-infused architecture inspired Bloomberg critic James S. Russell's latest review. Russell looks at the new $28 million visitor center at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which has garnered rave reviews from nearly every archicritic, and the makeover plans for Governors Island, designed by Rotterdam-based landscape architect West 8. Here now, we have the latest "Rhyme Time With James Russell," in free verse:
A sleek glass-and-aluminum folly,
the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's new visitor center,
An environmentally themed lesson plan,
goes down easy.
A butterfly-roofed entrance,
A curving path roofed by glass. Serpentine pathways,
Open to wisteria-draped lawns and azalea-dappled forests.
Governors Island, a 172-acre base,
a miniature forest and a welcoming ferry-boat landing.
The island will be transformed
into a world-class park.
Tree-lined streets, an undulating meadow.
A curving network of intertwined paths,
Flower beds and mazelike ovals of trimmed hedges.
Wide curbs rise sensuously to form benches,
Paths wander into a dense grove of trees hung with hammocks.
Waterfront parks, deftly poke through city shorelines,
Long walled off by roads, rails, factories and wharfs.
· Brooklyn Botanic, Lush Governors Island Ease City Life: Review [Bloomberg]
· Rhyme Time With James Russell [Curbed]
Image by Albert Vecerka/Esto via Bloomberg
Loading comments...