Projects Completed
The Battery Seawall and Railing
Site Conditions Pre-renovation
The Battery Seawall had suffered from fifty years of abuse and heavily trafficked uses. It had fallen into such disrepair that 48 cars had been permitted to park on the Battery’s historic waterfront. Acres of patched and re-patched asphalt were not welcoming to the park’s millions of visitors. The 1500 foot harbor side railing was corroded and reinforced with leftover chain-link fencing. The five waterfront gangways were unsuitable for current and future ferry service needs.
Reconstruction Plan and Funding
In 1990, when Congress passed the first intermodal transportation bill, $2 million was earmarked by Senator Patrick Moynihan to rebuild the Battery Seawall. The Battery Conservancy began operating in 1995, and its first project was to raise the funds to build awareness of the need to redesign and rebuild the Seawall. The Conservancy raised $250,000 in private donations and made the project a priority of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. These funds leveraged over $3.6 million from the NYC capital budget as reconstruction began in 1996.
Description of Project
The firm Olin Partnership was contracted in 1996 by the Conservancy to design the Battery’s Seawall and Promenade. The project included the reconstruction of five gangways, plus the construction of one additional gangway that supports excursions to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and facilitates waterborne transportation. The project was completed in 1998.
RTFTW Panel Detail in Winter
The Battery’s first public art initiative, The River That Flows Two Ways, by artist Wopo Holup, was unveiled on June 5, 2000. Thirty-seven panels of this permanent public artwork are set into the Seawall railing. The project details the ecological and human history of the Battery and the Hudson from the glacial age to the present. The Conservancy raised over $350,000 in private funds and worked with artist Wopo Holup to design, fabricate, and install the sculptural cast iron and bronze panels.
These lyrical images depict marine, natural, and human history. The panels illustrate the explorations and encounters of New York's diverse populations, showing maritime vessels, and moments in the exciting history of the Battery. It arouses curiosity, enchants the eye, and celebrates New York City's heritage.
Design Team
Landscape Architect: Olin Partnership
Artist: Wopo Holup
The Battery Promenade and the Gardens of Remembrance
Site Conditions Pre-renovation
The Battery Promenades had suffered from years of neglect. The gangways and staircases were not aligned, making access to the waterborne transportation difficult. Corroded iron fencing served as a barrier to the waterfront, restricting harbor views and pedestrian access.
Reconstruction Plan and Funding
The Conservancy created a plan with the following objectives:
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Line up The Battery’s 6 gangways with staircases to the Upper Promenade
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Remove barriers to the waterfront
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Replace outdated benches with a stunning granite bench that reflects the history of the site
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Reconnect the section of the promenade that had been bisected by the East Coast War Memorial
The Conservancy raised $400,000 in private funds, which leveraged $6.2 million in NYC capital funds. The Saratoga Associates were selected as the landscape architects for the project.
Description of Project
The rebuilt Upper Promenade opened in 2001. The defining element of the reconstructed Upper Promenade is the serpentine Stony Creek granite bench that runs the length of the promenade for 1,500 feet and gracefully outlines the prow of Manhattan Island. Each face of the bench's 23 piers is decorated with a beautifully carved spiral.
 Named The Battery Wave, the spiral is based on the golden mean. Its shape is echoed in the kerbed piers and the arched cast iron supports of the slatted bench. The Battery Wave, alone and as a repeated design element, reinforces the vital tie between the Battery's landscape and New York's Harbor.
The granite of the bench was quarried in Stony Creek, Connecticut, which also produced the stone for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in 1886.
Along the elevated portion of the promenade lies the 10,000 square foot Gardens of Remembrance. These vast perennial gardens pay tribute to:
- Those who perished on September 11, 2001
- The survivors of that day
- All who will visit in the years to come seeking renewed optimism and hope
Renowned Dutch garden designer, Piet Oudolf, has designed these gardens, planted on May 8th, 2003, with native grasses and flowering perennials. They embrace the waterfront, are in rhythm with the sea breeze, and delight the eye, while greeting millions of annual visitors to the Battery.
The Conservancy has established a $4 million endowment fund to maintain the Gardens of Remembrance in perpetuity. To date $1 million has been donated from the Verizon Foundation.
If you would like to be a part of creating and preserving these tribute gardens, please click here.
See a map of where the gardens have been planted and a complete list of selected plants.
Design Team
Landscape Architects: Saratoga Associates
Garden Design: Piet Oudolf
The Battery Labyrinth
The Battery Conservancy created the Battery Labyrinth to commemorate the one year anniversary of the World Trade Center tragedy. It offers the public a way to reflect, honor and heal. It is a walking path outlined with 1148 granite blocks that forms seven circular rings. It runs approximately 358 feet to the center core and then 358 out again to the entrance.
A labyrinth is not a maze, in which confusion is the aim. A labyrinth encourages contemplation on a journey with a clear destination. Its goal is to create an internal balance generated by the rhythm of the walking and the mental state of no decision-making.
Come walk the labyrinth and report to us your experience.
The Battery Labyrinth was conceived and funded by The Battery Conservancy in partnership with the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation. It was designed and built by Camino de Paz Labyrinths.
Located in the northwest corner of the park, it faces the West Street corridor and looking south it has striking views of the Statue of Liberty and the New York Harbor.
Design Team
Camino de Paz Labyrinths.
The Battery Bosque and Fountain
Site Conditions
Previously an uninspired space characterized by cracked asphalt, picnic tables and monotonous rows of benches, the Bosque will be completely rebuilt with a host of unique amenities.
The Battery Bosque - 2006
Reconstruction Plan and Funding
Opened in June 2005, the Battery Bosque is a garden-filled oasis at the tip of Manhattan. The Bosque, Spanish for “a grove of trees”, completes the second phase of Piet Oudolf’s horticultural master plan for The Battery. The Bosque features 57,000 square feet of gardens set among 140 mature London plane trees. The Bosque hosts 34,000 perennial plants, two distinctively designed food kiosks and a 40-foot-wide granite spiral fountain. The Conservancy raised $225,000 to fund the Bosque concept design. The realization of this design is funded by an $8.5 million grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.
Design Team
Garden Designer: Piet Oudolf
Landscape Architects: Saratoga Associates
Architects: Weisz + Yoes
Lighting Desinger: Linnaea Tillett
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