Life of Wry

… you know the rest, right?

I am a huge fan of the garden in Central Park.  In recent years, it’s just grown so phenomenally packed with gorgeous and unique flowers, and rows and rows of edible plants, vegetables, etc.  Plus, there is some truly imaginative art, and wonderful places to sit to take it all in.

Love it.

Remembering back to the mid-80s when I was appointed by the City Council to serve on the city’s Rec and Park commission.  I worked on a lot of projects during that six years, but none as fun as designing the new Central Park.  This happened soon after the citizens had voted, overwhelmingly, in a special election, to “save open space,” rejecting numerous proposals by developers to turn what used to be a large dirt parking lot into commercial and residential space.

We, the commission, met with the architect/planner–I think it was Mark Francis, now a landscape architect professor on campus–and brainstormed possibilities.  We were presented with a huge blank footprint of the park and were given pieces of cardboard that represented various park amenities–water features, a carousel, play structures, band shells, bathrooms, rose gardens, as well as a Science Center, a teen center, a local museum (now the Hattie Webber Museum), and of course the Farmer’s Market. Essentially, we were given a blank slate, to-scale puzzle-like pieces, and asked to design a park.  Fun!

We also had great discussion about what “open space” meant, and how to honor the will of the voters and not clutter up the space with too, too many amenties.  Ultimately, of course, it wasn’t our decision.  The commission eventually provided the Council with input and a loose recommendation.  There had also been plenty of ideas thrown around prior to the election and, subsequent to the election, numerous meetings were also held at which public input was sought.  The design process seemed to go on for years. Finally, with input sufficient for 10 central parks, the Council directed the architect/planner to go forth and design.

Which he did.  I’m not sure, but I think that was in the late 80s.  It happened in phases, and it’s still a work in progress.. new things seem to get added all the time.  Very glad it remained a park, however, and very, very glad to live only a few blocks away.

Anyway, came across this weird and wonderful flower (above) today.  Turns out, it’s one of these…

…. an artichoky.