Brooklyn Botanic Garden Robert W. Wilson Overlook The Robert W. Wilson Overlook creates a new destination in New York City's Brooklyn Botanic Garden with stunning views over the Cherry Esplanade and Garden at large. Encompassing 1.25 acres of the Garden's most significant unprogrammed site, north of the Cherry Esplanade, the Overlook features a new garden of flowering Crape myrtle trees and an immersive four-season planting design of ornamental grasses and perennials. The Overlook encourages visitor engagement with this world-class collection through the creation of communal gathering spaces and new vantage points.
A subtly sloping switchback pathway with sculptural retaining walls enhances the Garden's circulation by connecting the top and bottom of the hillside with a newly accessible route. This network of paths, walls, and landscape extends the inhabitable topography realized in the adjacent Diane H. & Joseph S. Steinberg Visitor Center, completed by Weiss/Manfredi in 2012. The Crape myrtle trees create a spectacular flower display of whites and pinks in late summer as a visual counterpoint to the spring Cherry Blossom Festival.
The trees' beautiful exfoliating cinnamon bark and unique multi-stem form extend their visual appeal into the winter. The hillside planting is designed to choreograph a lush and varied display of botanical beauty. Grasses and perennials combine to form a robust, resilient ecosystem which will evolve over time, inviting a diversity of insect and butterfly life, and stabilizing the soil to prevent erosion.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Robert W. Wilson Overlook The Robert W. Wilson Overlook creates a new destination in New York City's Brooklyn Botanic Garden with stunning views over the Cherry Esplanade and Garden at large. Encompassing 1.25 acres of the Garden's most significant unprogrammed site, north of the Cherry Esplanade, the Overlook features a new garden of flowering Crape myrtle trees and an immersive four-season planting design of ornamental grasses and perennials. The Overlook encourages visitor engagement with this world-class collection through the creation of communal gathering spaces and new vantage points.
A subtly sloping switchback pathway with sculptural retaining walls enhances the Garden's circulation by connecting the top and bottom of the hillside with a newly accessible route. This network of paths, walls, and landscape extends the inhabitable topography realized in the adjacent Diane H. & Joseph S. Steinberg Visitor Center, completed by Weiss/Manfredi in 2012. The Crape myrtle trees create a spectacular flower display of whites and pinks in late summer as a visual counterpoint to the spring Cherry Blossom Festival.
The trees' beautiful exfoliating cinnamon bark and unique multi-stem form extend their visual appeal into the winter. The hillside planting is designed to choreograph a lush and varied display of botanical beauty. Grasses and perennials combine to form a robust, resilient ecosystem which will evolve over time, inviting a diversity of insect and butterfly life, and stabilizing the soil to prevent erosion.