This project for the Queens Library System is located in Glen Oaks in a low density residential and commercial district.
The landscape idea transforms site constraints of an entire site build-out into an opportunity to explore relationships between artifice and nature. Rather than propose large bulky planters that would block visual access into the library, the landscape architects propose a contiguous thin soil matrix under a field of bluestone. Rhus glabra, or Sumac, is planted bare-root in this thin crust. Sumac roots tend to be shallow and wide-spreading, so the plant is highly suitable for this condition. Bluestone planks of varying widths create an urban surface in keeping with the library’s residential context and larger public space role and are ‘removed’ to plant Sumac and low perennials. Benches are introduced in keeping with the grain of the bluestone pattern, which splays at the building entry. The library landscape is visually porous, blending inside and outside, while providing quiet seating areas for rest and reading. (Scape Landscape Architecture PLLC)