So let’s recap. We have recently learned that Manhattan Avenue is now graced with a terrifyingly nice art gallery and in the previous post we checked out a wonderful garden on the Southside (where the sign to the left can be found). What do these previous two items have in common, you ask? Not very much I suppose— but they are both very germane to this post.
Inasmuch as I harbor a fascination for the abject the fact of the matter is I also take great pleasure in things that are visually pleasing. The furniture I saw at Gallery 1889 was aesthetically stunning but not the kind of thing I would want in my home. It was a little too sterile and user “unfriendly” for my taste. Simply put, I liked the form but there was a sore lack of attention to function.
Now that I have established my philosophy about items made for human use I would like to segue to the subject of trees. Or more specifically how people in Greenpoint tend to treat them. This is can be summarized in two words:
1: Like
2: SHIT
But Greenpoint’s trees (and tree pits) are not only used as ad hoc trash receptacles and public lavatories. Anyone who has the misfortune of living on Greenpoint Avenue between Manhattan Avenue and Franklin Street will tell you they are often employed as bike racks with appalling results. Yours truly has seen many a bike lock and/or chain digging into the trunk of some hapless tree all because some asshole is too damned lazy to keep his or her bicycle in his/her apartment (where, I will add, it belongs).
If one cannot bother to be friendly to our leafy companions he or she should simply leave them alone. I fail to understand why some harbor such antagonism towards our photosynthesizing friends. Especially when you can do something incredibly nifty that helps them and gives you a place relax and/or watch the world go by.
Which is exactly what the folks at 1071 Manhattan Avenue have done.
Someone put a lot of thought and effort into creating this premium example of street seating. I will highlight a few of my favorite features.
First up: wire mesh has been employed to discourage canines (and their human counterparts) from giving this tree a golden shower. Or using it as a waste basket.
Speaking of trash, note how a bag has been thoughtfully placed on the back of the bench to provide a receptacle your garbage. As for the table/newspaper rack that’s genius. Plain and simple.
The garden (replete with tulips) is the icing on the cake!
In closing whoever designed and executed this, the best tree pit in Brooklyn, deserves some real and lasting recognition be it from our municipal government or the design community as a whole. It has an elegant simplicity and feel for human use one does not see much nowadays. In other words it is a perfect marriage of form and function. This is the Falling Water of tree pits.
Miss Heather
P.S.: Special thanks go out to Laura Hofmann for reminding me to write about this. Thanks!
