Last fall, Midtown welcomed a brand new public park and garden oasis (the first new green space in Midtown in decades), filled with artisan food stands, a gorgeous waterfall, and all the greenery you can imagine to convince you it’s summertime year-round.
The project of international architecture, landscape, and interior design firm Snøhetta, this new public park occupies space at 550 Madison Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets.
Unlike anything Midtown has ever seen, the design re-envisions the building’s public space as a generously expanded, densely vegetated garden, according to Snøhetta’s website.
This urban garden includes 48 trees, 200 shrubs, 6,300 bulb plants, and 10,000 herbaceous understory plants.
These, alongside other plantings, will encourage a variety of birds, butterflies, and other pollinators to thrive in this environment, creating the ultimate shared urban habitat. The 21,300-square-foot garden is nearly twice the size of the area’s previous public space.
“The half-acre Garden at 550 Madison is a welcoming new green space, offering a lush and elegant environment at the center of New York City,” states Erik Horvat, Managing Director of Real Estate at Olayan America. “The garden’s cutting-edge design and meticulous maintenance positions it among the most beautiful public spaces in the city, while providing a dynamic amenity to tenants of 550 Madison.”
Partially covered by a glass canopy, visitors will experience an indoor-outdoor feel, and the circular rooms invite them to linger as they wander through, allowing the garden to accommodate a variety of experiences for its visitors: to catch up and socialize with friends over lunch, relax next to the sounds of the waterfall, or simply connect back to nature in the middle of the Concrete Jungle.
“Like many New Yorkers, we yearn to connect with the outdoors, and this collaboration with Olayan offered our team an opportunity to reposition the heroic 550 Madison tower for a new age while reestablishing how the tower meets the city,” said Craig Dykers, Snøhetta Founding Partner.
The garden oasis is open to visitors Monday-Sunday from 7 a.m. – 11 p.m. More info here.