Urban Garden Tour | Hell's Kitchen

Design Wild was excited to host our 1st ever garden tour and cocktail party. We held an immersive walking tour through the wild gardens of Hell’s Kitchen featuring a network of plantings that attract pollinators in the heart of Manhattan. The tour was co-hosted by a community partnership between Design Wild, the Hudson Yards Hell's Kitchen Alliance (HYHK), a non-profit business improvement district, and Clinton Housing Development Company (CHDC), a non-profit affordable housing organization. All groups are dedicated to enhancing quality of life through access to green spaces in the Manhattan neighborhood.

Garden Design: Shanti Nagel - Principle, Design Wild Horticulture: Meral Marino - Director of Horticulture, CHDC Horticulture: Ulises Hernandez - Field Manager, HYHK

Sites we toured included:

1. Bob’s Park & 35th Street Planting: The first playground developed in the area since the 40’s - Bob’s Park was built along with the adjacent supportive housing in 1995 by CHDC. The plantings along 35th street are a great example of greening potential on narrow New York City streets.

2. Canoe Plaza: Developed by HYHK, Canoe Plaza has been a collaboration between the Department of Transportation, The Port Authority of NY/NJ, the Quadrum Global group, and community partners. Read more about this project here.

3. 37th Street Planting: Developed by HYHK, 37th Street Planting is creating a new way of planting public space with ecology and pollinators in mind as well as human and neighborhood well-being. New plantings have echos of the natural, wild style of the High Line park just a few blocks away.

4. Street Seat: The Street Seat program is an initiative of the Department of Transportation. Through this program, partners apply to transform underused streets into vibrant, social public spaces. HYHK & CHDC, in partnership, developed the first extra long and all year round street seat. Learn more about the DOT program here.

5. 39th Street Plantings: This site is a continuation of HYHK’s 37th Streets plantings. Here we will find flowers and pollinators busy at work in the midst of 10th Avenue bus traffic.

6. 42nd Street Courtyard: Our final stop will be a shared courtyard in a CHDC built and managed affordable housing building. This garden includes unique historic stone items salvaged from the original building reimagined as several features including a beautiful water feature. This stop will include refreshments.