EDITOR’S NOTE: The grassy berms in Brooklyn Bridge Park are one of the magical details that help make BBP so special. Designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates to serve as “sound attenuation devices” for the BQE traffic noise, they also function as a healthy habitat for birds and bees, literally. As Michael Van Valkenburg is about to appear in a live interview March 21, hosted by the Brooklyn Dining Club, it seemed an opportune moment to ask a few questions ahead of time. Subject: the berms.
BROOKLYN EAGLE (BE): As beautifully functional as the berms are for sound attenuation, a layman might ask: Would not trees help in sound attenuation?
MICHAEL VAN VALKENBURGH (MVV): As we were developing solutions to block the noise of the BQE, we brought on acoustic engineers at Cerami & Associates to help model our ideas and determine the materials and dimensions that would be most effective. Sound waves pass right through the branches and leaves of trees, unlike solid earth. It is also extremely difficult to support trees on a 45-degree slope.
Photo courtesy of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
BE: Because of the ‘mini-mountain’ appearance of the berms, one might assume there was useful storage or other purpose in placing structures beneath the mounds. Was such a plan ever considered?
MVV: Placing structures beneath the berms would have been a costly and even more technically challenging effort, primarily because of the sheer weight of the earth and the unique shape required to effectively deflect noise.
Don’t miss Michael Van Valkenburgh live, interviewed by journalist and former BBC anchor and correspondent, Laura Trevelyan, March 21 at the Brooklyn Dining Club.
BE: What were some of the soil selection parameters for the berms? For example, is there any clay in the soil? Was a soil search necessary to find the right mixture?
MVV: We worked with our geotechnical engineers and soil scientists to determine the ideal horticultural soil and “bulk fill,” meaning the soil, rock, or aggregate used to reach a required height. In the case of the berms, only the first 24 inches consist of planting soil—which includes some percentage of clay, like most soils in the park, and was optimized for the plants we had in mind. Because the slope is so extreme, the earth is reinforced with layers of textile grids that keep the soil in place.
This is the cover of the new book by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, expansively illustrated to show the creation of New York’s most transformative project in the new century: Brooklyn Bridge Park. Last year, the park hosted more than 5 million visitors. Image courtesy of Monacelli
BE: Same question for the grass. Also, it was beyond charming to see happy animals grazing on the grass, acting as natural ‘lawnmowers.’ But a casual observer has not seen the animals recently; how is the grass (and the park at large) maintained?
MVV: The plants were also selected to increase stability and limit erosion. We began with warm-season grasses and native forbs on the first berm and later turned to a cold-season mix of fescues, bluegrass, and autumn bentgrass.
The berms and their plantings, like the rest of the park, are maintained by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, which is a non-profit controlled by the City of New York. The horticulture staff at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, led by Rashid Poulson, are an amazing crew that are individually tasked with caring for their own portions of the landscape. The maintenance budget is supplied by the park’s revenue-generating commercial developments, such as the 1 Hotel, which ensures that the landscape will be properly cared for in perpetuity.
Brooklyn Eagle photo by Mary Frost
BE: In the international sweep of the design impact of Van Valkenburgh and Associates, are there other notable parks that have used the berm concept?
MVV: Berms like those at Brooklyn Bridge Park have not been replicated anywhere else in our work, but many of our projects use constructed topography to create more comfortable environments for people: Gathering Place in Tulsa, Hudson River Park and Teardrop Park in Manhattan, Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis, among others.
Don’t miss Michael Van Valkenburgh live, interviewed by journalist and former BBC anchor and correspondent, Laura Trevelyan, March 21 at the Brooklyn Dining Club.
BE: In so many miles of natural waterfront exposure, most city people think of either beaches or tidal marshes. Rivers and currents offer a different challenge to waterfront parks and development. Can you speak of other projects involving rivers?… Indeed, how about raging rivers?
MVV: Many of our projects include riverfronts or sites impacted by rivers: our first major park commission was Mill Race Park in Columbus, Indiana, which sat in the floodplain of two rivers and faced as much as 10 feet of flooding. We built Allegheny Riverfront Park in Pittsburgh not long after. More than 20 years later, we are nearing the completion of the Port Lands Flood Protection project in Toronto, which involved the reconstruction of the mouth of the Don River in Toronto to remove several hundred acres of land from the river’s floodplain, enabling significant development and the creation of more than 100 acres of parks and wildlife habitats on Lake Ontario. We are also wrapping up the construction of a new riverfront at Gathering Place on the Arkansas River, which includes a water recreation area and a bridge that spans the river, opening this summer.
Michael Van Valkenburgh photographed on The Squibb Park Bridge in Brooklyn Bridge Park 2013. Photo: Robert Adam Mayer
SUNSET PARK — “As a resident of Marine Park, one of the great surprises I found biking around Industry City and visiting Japan Village was to discover Bush Terminal Park. I continue to be amazed at the serene hideaways that the city offers in some of the busiest places — and, still, with an iconic view.”
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — ‘A miracle that no one was killed …’ That’s what neighbors are saying about the collapse of the Hotel St. George marquee. Shown in this photograph are workmen beginning the removal and repair of the historic, old neon sign at the corner, referencing a relic of Brooklyn Heights’ past: the St. George Hotel.
ATLANTIC AVENUE — Exhausted shopper with cluster of bags and goods from mall at Boerum Place stops to look at huge construction site across the street. “Is that REALLY going to be a jail??” Her male companion is reassuring, “Nothing like Rikers … this is 21st Century.”
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Overheard in line at one of most popular pastry outlets on Montague Street: “Hope I can get them into a camp …” A mother with two pre-schoolers in tow was showing a friend the Dodge Y flyer for Healthy Kids Day on Saturday, April 18.
