This shady park at the tip of the city was renovated in 2005 with lovely seating, a fountain, and ornamental gardens. A good place to enjoy a cool sea breeze. Once a two-acre area of asphalt, the Bosque now fulfills historic Battery Park's potential as a destination. Full of natural abundance, with spaces to sit, eat, and play, it is a lushly planted porch to the vast acreage of New York's Inner Harbor.The key to this transformation was the synergy between the concept of a garden on the waterfront and the design of new park elements that could complete this atmosphere. The curvilinear park geometry was designed to support Dutch designer Piet Oudolf's perennial plant vocabulary. This radical idea of a public park as a garden that is able to support thousands of flowering plants was bolstered by an emphasis on occupying the new park with hundreds of linear feet of seating and new activities including a water feature and dining. To work with the unique curves of The Bosque, WXY's River Bench system was designed to be comfortable and use less material than conventional systems.The planning of the Park took into account the punishing load of an annual count of four million tourists boarding boats to the Statue of Liberty as well as the influx of new residents and downtown workers. Supporting evening and weekend activity is the integration of lighting into the design of the park's features. Under the trees are bollard lights by Tilllett Lighting that have lenses that allow rainwater to collect and be part of the lighting effect. Food kiosks are designed to be lantern-like at night, using cold cathode fixtures. Although an ellipse shape seems only possible with custom design, this system was created to be modular so that it can be replicated easily and all pieces can be easily replaced.
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