News Items (2003) October 19, 2003  CHARLES IS 9/11 MEMORIAL GARDEN PATRON from ICBirmingham.co.uk The Prince of Wales is to be the Royal Patron of the New York British Memorial Garden, established to honour the Britons who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks. The garden is being developed in Lower Manhattan near to the site where nearly 3,000 people, including 67 Britons, died when the twin towers were destroyed in 2001. "We are delighted and honoured by the news that his Royal Highness has agreed to become our Royal Patron," said Camilla Hellman, President of the British Memorial Garden Trust. "His involvement means so much to all those concerned, and it reflects the wonderful level of support and help we have received in both the United States and in Britain." The first seeds of the garden, in Hanover Square, were sown by the Princess Royal in April. They were taken from royal palaces in Britain. Due for completion next year, the garden will include floral tributes and a sculpture symbolising unity between the British and American people. The trust describes it as "a place of remembrance, contemplation and community recreation". Top British artists are currently bidding to design the sculpture. The winner will be announced in the coming weeks. (This article also appeared on ICWales on the same date). September 11, 2003  COUPLE'S NY GARDEN MEMORIAL A Bristol couple have won a competition to design a memorial garden for British victims of the 11 September terrorist attacks in America. The brief for garden designers Julian and Isabel Bannerman from Hanham, who have already worked with Prince Charles, was to create an area that encapsulated a British garden. A ribbon of stone representing the outline of the British isles will carry the names of all its counties, with the marriage of sculpture and horticulture a prominent feature throughout. But, the couple say, throughout the creative process the horrors of 9/11 were always present. The garden will open in about 18 months close to Ground Zero, in New York city. Mr Bannerman said: "We're very proud of it, although it's quite humbling in a way." Mrs Bannerman added: "All gardens are about regeneration. They are about hope and the return of the seasons and that's what is so great about doing a garden for it." Meanwhile, the Princess Royal opened a UK memorial garden to victims of the attacks, in London on Thursday. The central plaque in the Grosvenor Square garden memorial was dedicated to all those who were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in 2001. September 9-15, 2003  PLANNING A DOWNTOWN PLAZA IN THE BRITISH COUNTRYSIDE By Melissa Robbins LONDON— There are few places in Lower Manhattan where a person can sit on a park bench and imagine himself elsewhere. The sights and sounds and smells of the city are too prominent and familiar to ignore. But down at Hanover Square, on a quarter-acre of land designated for the British Memorial Garden, Julian and Isabel Bannerman are planning to cultivate a bit of the English countryside amid the skyscrapers and concrete. The husband-and-wife team, who are based in Bristol, England, were selected from among six prestigious British landscape architects to design the memorial in honor of the 67 Britons who died in the Sept. 11 attacks. Known for creating classical gardens with a contemporary twist, the Bannermans approached this project by thinking about things that would evoke a memory of home for U.K. citizens living abroad. Embracing elements of both noble and common gardens, the Bannermans hope to create a space that feels intimate and comforting to visitors. “I hope they will find it familiar,” said Isabel Bannerman, who views the installation as more than a collection of plants and flowers. “I hope that it will get used and loved, and therefore looked after.” The garden, which will be situated on the triangular plot between Old Slip and Pearl St., will incorporate stone and greenery that are native to the British landscape. Box and yew figure heavily in the design, as well as fragrant, blossoming philadelphus. The space will feature a tall topiary, surrounded by winding paths of Scottish Caithness paving and curvy handmade benches of English limestone. “The thing about topiary is that you see it in ancient castles as well as in suburban gardens,” Isabel said in a telephone interview. “There are all sorts of things that you could see in a very humble garden in England or the very highest garden,” adds Julian, who has worked in partnership with his wife for over twenty years. “You see these elements in sort of the good and the great.” And the Bannermans, who were selected for the project by a committee of representatives from the British consulate, the New York City Parks Department, Community Board 1 and the Downtown Alliance, have had a hand in creating many of the great modern garden installations in Britain. They have designed grounds for such noted locations as Leeds Castle in Kent, Knepp Castle in West Sussex and Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire. They have undertaken multiple commissions from the British Royal Family, and earlier this year the Bannermans added to their litany of awards a Royal Warrant by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales for their ongoing work at his Highgrove Estate in Gloucestershire. The American-born philanthropist Sir John Paul Getty, who passed away in April, chose to be buried in the garden the Bannermans designed for his Buckinghamshire Estate. Lower Manhattan’s memorial garden will likely exhibit many stylistic similarities to the architects’ former works. However, the husband is careful to point out, “It’s really it’s own thing.” “I think what we’re quite good at is creating spaces with a very strong mood to them,” said Isabel. But because this garden addresses a tragedy as immense and horrific as the Sept. 11 attacks, she says, “It meant that this had to be a very strong statement. It couldn’t be wimpy.” Yet while their approach to the project may be firm-handed, the memorial’s most powerful effect may ultimately lie in its fragility. A monument, says Isabel, may be sturdy and lasting, “But a garden is changing and living and growing and hopeful. You can actually be a part of it.” And among victims’ families and local residents, the desire to be able to access and enjoy the garden was foremost among their priorities. The plan calls for 150-feet of seating on the square, which the Bannermans have accommodated with 25 curved benches set among the greenery. Construction is scheduled to begin on the site next spring, and the project is targeted for completion in October 2004. In all, the memorial is expected to cost between $2.5 and $3 million to build. Funds are being raised to meet this budget by the British Memorial Garden Trust, which is overseen by the British Consulate-General and the St. George’s Society, a 243-year-old organization for British citizens in New York. The Trust is sponsoring a choral performance at the square this Sept. 11 from 5 p.m. – 6 p.m. A new location is being sought for the statue of former New York Mayor Abraham de Peyster, which presently sits at Hanover Square. And a competition is underway to select an artist to create a new sculpture for the memorial that will celebrate connections between Britain and America. It is an appropriate theme for Hanover Square — which has a namesake, Hanover Square, London — and is one of the few public spaces in Manhattan to retain its English name after the Revolutionary War. “It’s a nice way of trying to sort of represent all the things in common between Britain and America,” says Julian of the memorial. “It represents all of the connections and all that’s good in the marriage between us.” September 14, 2003  WALL STREET'S NEW MOTTO: REFLECT, REMEMBER, REBUILD An extract from an article in the Observer of London by Joanna Walters Hanover Square is one of the very few places in New York that retained its royal place name after the Revolution. The tiny oasis of trees and benches flanked by a Goldman Sachs office, just off Wall Street, was named after George III's family and has been a public space in the city since the days of the Dutch settlement. Now it is about to undergo a facelift that symbolises lower Manhattan's watershed between devastation and, many say, regrowth. The 'Friends of the British' Memorial Garden will be dug and planted in time to bloom in the square next summer, complete with a snaking pathway etched with the names of British citizens who died on 11 September. On the second anniversary of the attacks, traders walked to work through the square wearing Stars and Stripes ties as the New York Stock Exchange flew its flags at half mast. After work, quaint, cobbled Stone Street adjacent to Hanover Square was filled with an incongruous mix of firefighters and Wall Street traders knocking back the pints. Another anniversary survived, a few more dollars made and now being spent in the series of funky new bars and restaurants that personify New York's new motto: Reflect, Remember, Rebuild. (For the full text of this article in the Observer online, click here.) August 22, 2003  MEMORIAL GARDEN TO HONOR BRITISH VICTIMS OF SEPT 11 See NY 1's interview with Camilla Hellman, President of the British Memorial Garden, in Real Player format here (broadband) or here (dialup). Alternatively, read Amanda Farinacci's interview with Camilla at www.ny1.com. August 10, 2003  A BRITISH GARDEN FOR THE FINANCIAL DISTRICT (from the NY Sunday Times, viewable with free registration at www.nytimes.com. Alternatively, read the same article at www.wirednewyork.com, which offers the facility of being able to make your own comments about The British Memorial Garden in the Wired New York Forum.) By Nadine Brozan Hanover Square, a brick-paved triangular park in the financial district, is to be transformed into an oasis of greenery under plans formulated to honor the bonds of amity between the city and Britain. To be known as the British Memorial Garden, the project would also memorialize the 67 Britons lost in the World Trade Center attack and the British subjects who died alongside Americans in various wars. "After the events of 9/ll, many of us in the British community here, alone without our families, decided that we had gotten through this because of New York itself," said Camilla G. Hellman, president of the British Memorial Garden. "I went to the board of St. George's Society and said I would like to explore the idea of giving the city a garden, a truly British garden." The society, a philanthropic organization founded here in 1770, will serve on the trust established to oversee planning and preservation of the garden. Ms. Hellman also went to the Department of Parks and Recreation, which owns the site, where William T. Castro, the department's commissioner for Manhattan, suggested she scout possible locales. "When we walked into Hanover Square, it felt so right," she said. Her organization is now raising $3.5 million to build and endow the garden. Once the location was secured, juried competitions were organized to select both the landscape designer and the sculptor of a piece to be installed there. Twenty landscape architects were asked to submit plans, with Julian and Isabel Bannerman, who have designed gardens for the Prince of Wales and Andrew Lloyd Webber, emerging the winner. "Normally, we don't enter competitions, but we thought this was rather special so we broke our golden rule,' Mr. Bannerman said from London. "We tried to pick timeless elements," he said, explaining the choice of yew trees. "They are always in English churchyards and are perhaps the oldest trees in Britain, living up to 1,000 years." The yews will be trimmed into abstract topiary shapes. Flowers are to be planted from seeds taken from 16th-century garden of Henry VIII and the 17th-century garden of William III at Hampton Court Palace. Some of those seeds have already gone to the Bronx. "They're not good for more than a year, so we have sown some of them in the nursery at Van Cortlandt Park, where they will be propagated," said Adrian Benepe, the parks commissioner. The seating, curved stone benches, is to be placed over and in front of plantings of box bushes. A ribbon of stones is to be threaded through the garden into which the names of all the counties in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are to be carved. There is to be a rose in the iron fence for each of the 67 Britons who died in the World Trade Center. The winning design for the sculpture is to be announced on Oct. 1. The sculpture now in the square, a statue of Abraham De Peyster, mayor of the city from 1692 to 1694, is to be moved to a destination that has not yet been determined and that requires approval of the city's Art Commission, Mr. Benepe said. Garden construction, contingent on Arts Commission review, is to begin next spring; planners hope for completion by summer. July 31, 2003   Read about Manchester United's tribute and donation to the British Memorial Garden in Manchester Online. July 19, 2003  Read about the British Memorial Garden in London's Weekend Telegraph, online. May 6-12, 2003 PRINCESS ANNE SAYS GARDEN WILL GROW AT HANOVER SQUARE By Albert Amateau  Downtown Express photo by Lorenzo Ciniglio Ann Ketring, 8, who lives on Hanover Sq., presented a bouquet to Her Royal Highness Princess Anne on the damp afternoon of April 29 at the ceremony announcing the creation of the British Memorial Garden in Hanover Sq. The Princess Royal, wearing a sky-blue jacket and black skirt, proclaimed the garden would be “a distinctively British contribution to a city with long ties to Britain and serve not only as a memorial of the events of Sept. 11 but a memorial to Britons who died side by side with Americans in many wars, most recently in Iraq.” The Princess, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, presented Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe with a collection of flower seeds from the Royal Palaces of Britain in a mahogany box carved by Viscount Linley, her cousin. Benepe greeted the princess on behalf of Mayor Bloomberg and opened the ceremony in the public square located a few blocks from ground zero. Guests at the event included Carl Weisbrod, president of the Downtown Alliance and City Councilmember Alan Gerson. Julian and Isabel Bannerman, British landscape architects whose design concept was chosen over five competitors, are designing the garden, which is sponsored by the Friends of the British Memorial Gardens in conjunction with the British Consul General in New York, Sir Thomas Harris, and the St. George Society, a group of British citizens living in New York. The Bannerman concept for the garden, which is expected to open in the summer of next year, involves formal plantings, yew trees and topiary shrubs. A juried competition is taking place for British sculptors for a sculpture for the garden. The seated statue of Abraham de Peyster (Mayor 1692-4) currently in Hanover Sq. will be moved, but the new location has not been decided. The $2.5 million to build and maintain the park is being raised by public subscription. May 6, 2003  BRITS' NEW GARDEN GETS A ROYAL KICKOFF By Etta Sanders, Tribeca Tribune, New York A project that promises to transform the triangle of benches and trees at Hanover Square into a sculpted English garden moved a step forward with the selection of a design team and the visit by a princess. Julian and Isabel Bannerman were selected by a jury that included representatives from the British consulate, the New York City Parks Department, Community Board 1 and the Downtown Alliance, to design the British Memorial Garden. The husband-and-wife team, based in Bristol, England, were chosen from a field of six British landscape architects. “They are renowned for doing classical Georgian gardens with a little bit of an edge,” said Camilla Hellman, president of the British Memorial Garden Trust. The winning design features curving green hedges, and 25 stone benches that will snake around a tall topiary and colorful flowerbeds. “I’m not aware of any garden quite like it in the city,” said Judy Duffy, assistant district manager of Community Board 1 and one of the jurors. The next step will be collaboration between the designers and the Parks Department to modify the plan to accommodate crosswalks and other access issues. A place is also being sought for the statue of Peter Peyser, which will need to be moved. Neighborhood concerns, such as the cost of maintenance, will be handled by an endowment fund. Hellman said the designers have also promised not to remove existing trees. The idea for the garden grew out of the attack on the World Trade Center, when The St George’s Society, which aids British citizens in need in New York, was looking for a way to use money raised after Sept. 11. “After 9/11 a lot of us who don’t have family here realized we all pulled together as a city and counted on each other a lot,” said Hellman. “I felt it would be nice to give something back to the city.” The garden will honor the 67 British victims of the terrorist attack, but is about more than Sept. 11. “There is an element that will notice the World Trade Center,” said Hellman, “but then there’s so much more that’s happened between the two nations for so long.” A second part of the plan, a work of art to symbolize unity between the United States and Great Britain, will be chosen in a separate competition to be completed by the end of June. The project has an estimated budget of $2.5 to $3 million. The British Memorial Garden Trust recently received nonprofit status and has begun to raise money. Construction is expected to begin next spring, with completion targeted for the fall of 2004. A ceremony for Remembrance Day, the British Veteran’s Day, is planned for Nov. 11.  Princess Anne visited Hanover Square on April 29 to present a selection of seeds from the royal gardens of England to Adrian Benepe, Commisioner of the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation. “This garden could do more than just act as a focal point to honor those lost on Sept. 11th” she said in a ceremony outside 3 Hanover Square. “This garden could also give a distinctly British contribution to the revitalization of Lower Manhattan.” After reviewing several sites, Hanover Square was selected in part because of historical ties to England. After the Revolutionary War, it was one of the few public spaces to retain its English name. The size and character of the square was also a factor. “Hanover Square is typical of a square you might find in London,” Hellman said. May 5, 2003   NYC Parks & Recreation Department has posted the following news about Hanover Square and the Princess Royal's visit on its official web site: A ROYAL WELCOME FOR A NEW GARDEN On Tuesday, April 29 Hanover Square in lower Manhattan filled with people from the other side of the pond. Brits and Americans alike gathered to celebrate the launch of a project to build a commemorative garden in the historic square. This project is expected to be complete in 2004, transforming the .056 acre concrete square into a beautiful garden. Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, graciously attended the event and was joined by Consul General Sir Thomas Harris, Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol Commissioner Marjorie Tiven, and Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe. "The British have a rich tradition of horticulture," said Commissioner Benepe. "I look forward to the day when this concrete plaza is replaced by a harmoniously designed garden." The garden is intended as a living memorial and as a place of solitude, comfort, and reflection. It will serve as a focal point for the British nationals who lost their lives in the attacks on the World Trade Center, as well as the many thousands of British servicemen and others who gave their lives alongside their American comrades in the wars against tyranny and oppression. | ||
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