Prospect Park

The Daily Plant : Monday, September 29, 2003

NEW WATERFALLS FLOW THANKS TO KRESGE CHALLENGE GRANT

In a ceremony that was both a ribbon cutting and a groundbreaking, Prospect Park recently celebrated two exciting landscape restorations: the Binnenwater Restoration, which has just been completed, and the Lullwater Restoration, which is just getting started. The two restorations are closely related and part of a larger plan to reconstruct watercourses throughout Prospect Park. Both projects were financed through the Kresge Challenge Grant, a unique fundraising campaign which helps the Prospect Park Alliance, a public/private partnership with Parks & Recreation, to gather funding from a variety of public and private sources.

The Binnenwater Restoration began in 2001 with a goal to restore the streambed and pedestrian paths from Nethermead Arches to the Music Pagoda Bridge, as well as all the surrounding habitats. As part of the restoration, three scenic waterfalls were also recreated, as well as Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s Binnen Pool, which had been lost to years of erosion and sedimentation. Binnenwater was a labor-intensive job that involved reconstructing the Park’s stairs, bridges, waterfalls, weirs, pools, cascades and babbling brooks; adding thousands of cubic yards of soil and leaf mold to the eroded Woodlands, planting over 500,000 brushes, shrubs and trees, and digging out innumerable invasive phragmite plants.

Prospect Park’s upcoming renovation of Lullwater will continue the work that was started with Binnenwater. When the Lullwater Restoration is complete, 30 acres of natural habitat will be restored and two new water features, Binnen Falls, and Lilypond, will be created. The site will also include two and half miles of hiking trails, and seven rustic viewing platforms, shelters and arbors.

Both restoration projects were designed by Christian Zimmerman, Prospect Park’s Director of Design and Construction. Like all of the Alliance’s restoration projects, these new landscape renovations reflect Olmsted and Vaux’s original vision for Prospect Park. To many, Prospect Park is Olmsted and Vaux’s greatest masterpiece. Because of the success of their first design—Central Park—Olmsted and Vaux were given considerable leeway in determining Prospect Park’s size, shape, and location. With Brooklyn’s burgeoning population in mind, Olmsted and Vaux created a truly natural retreat away from the city, incorporating native plants and trees. This emphasis on natural horticultural elements is evident in the new renovations, which have already attracted the attention of Brooklyn’s native wildlife.

The groundbreaking/ribbon cutting ceremony also celebrated Prospect Park’s successful completion of the Kresge Challenge Grant. The grant, awarded two years ago by the prestigious Kresge Foundation, awarded the Alliance $750,000 with the challenge to complete their $16 million fund-raising campaign. The Alliance rose to the bait and obtained funding from a variety of private and public sources which included the Brooklyn Delegation to the New York City Council; the New York State Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation; and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

With autumn just around the corner, there are only a few weeks left to witness these new restorations in full flower. Pack a picnic lunch and head to Prospect Park, to enjoy the urban paradise Olmsted and Vaux first envisioned over one hundred years ago.

By Hannah Gersen

From "Water Picture"

In the pond in the park:

All things are doubled:

Long buildings hang and

Wriggle gently. Chimneys

Are bent legs bouncing

On clouds below. A flag

Wags like a fishook

Down there in the sky.

By May Swenson

"The burden of the incommunicable."