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February 14, 2007
Phyto Spa's "Mur Vegetal"
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Once we had fallen in love with Patrick Blanc's "Mur Vegetal" in Paris, (citygardenguide 2.5) green architecture here at home seemed especially unadventurous and drab. There was a possibility of a green wall as part of the High Line, and a mockup was built last summer, but according to the people at Field Operations (landscape architects in charge of project), they aren't going to go forward with it. It isn't that there aren't hundreds of greening projects all over the city. Green roofs are the hottest issue in New York horticulture. There are at least two major lectures coming up on the subject, one at the Horticultural Society on February 12th (hsny.org) and an all-day symposium at the New York Botanical Garden on April 13th (nybg.org). Even more to the point, there are loads of actual green roofs either just installed or in the works (some say over 100). The two new buildings at Battery Park come to mind as well as the roof of the Bronx Courthouse and the old Silvercup studio building in Queens. All these roofs are definitely 'A GOOD THING', although we do worry about the world supply of low-growing sedums, which must be under some strain. However, as city dwellers we can't get that excited about this very worthy greening method because--and this might sound a tad selfish--all the good stuff is on the roof. The pedestrian, the basic building block of New York City's urban life, doesn't get to see those roofs. Green roofs might have lots of positives from an environmental viewpoint, but they do nothing for the streetscape or for improving our experience as we walk--and so many of us do--through the city. We don't see any of those uber-green apartment dwellers inviting the public to enjoy their ecologically correct roof gardens any time soon. The beauty of green walls is that it gives the urban wanderer a garden they can see--a real garden--on the slimmest possible footprint--the wall of a building.
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We were rapturously describing the 'Mur Vegetal" to a friend who said that it sounded just like something he had seen on Lexington in Midtown. "There is nothing green on Lexington Avenue", we said confidently. But he was right. The Phyto Spa on Lexington at 58th street commissioned Patrick Blanc to create a large (9000 plants) interior Mur Vegetal. He made a vertical garden on both sides of a wall, one side forms the interior rear wall of the 3rd floor spa, and the other side forms a kind of gorgeous window display, perfectly visible from Lexington Avenue. The staff at the Phyto Spa couldn't be nicer about letting visitors see the wall close up- it's well worth a visit- it might even be worth a hair treatment!
Posted by gardenguidenyc at February 14, 2007 09:13 PM