NAVAL CEMETERY LANDSCAPE | Brooklyn, New York | 2017

Architects: Marvel Architects
Associate Architects: Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects
Client: Brooklyn Greenway Initiative
General Contractor: Kelco Landscaping and Construction
Photographer: Max Touhey

The Brooklyn Naval Hospital Cemetery was active from 1831 to 1910 and was the burial site for more than 2,000 people, primality officers and enlisted men. In 1926, the Navy relocated remains to Cypress Hills National Cemetery. Later archival and archaeological investigations of the site concluded that numerous burials were unaccounted for and potentially remained at the site.

The location is rethought as an open space along the length of the Brooklyn Greenway and reactivated as a publicly accessible landscape. The design features a wildflower meadow and sacred grove, framed by an undulating boardwalk and lifted above the hallowed ground. This experience evokes the histories of settlement and cultivation, life and death, while slowing the heart rate and connecting visitors with the stories of the site. The work was partly funded by a grant with a mission to reconnect urban residents with nature and histories of place.

The wildflower meadow, with more than fifty species of native plants, offers much needed cover and food for the pollinators critical to the ecological health of the region. Initially established in a strict geometric arrangement, the plantings will eventually drift across the site, creating new patterns and establishing a self-sustaining, ‘open-ended’ ecology intended to draw people, birds, moths and bees in a rich celebration of life.

Sited to the east of the Naval Hospital buildings at the Naval Annex, at the grounds are a former cemetery. The project creates public access to a 1.7 acre natural area within the boundary of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, with entry from Williamsburg Street West, between Flushing Avenue and Kent Avenue.

Because of the sensitive condition of the site, all structures are designed and engineered with minimal impact upon the landscape. A series of steps and an accessible ramp lead up to the gateway and the level of a raised, wooden walkway. The walkway does not use heavy footings or foundations. Instead, an array small, precast concrete piers is set onto the ground surface and secured with steel pins driven into the earth.

The raised walking path provides access around the perimeter of the site and its large central meadow. Two small seating areas for education and reflection are placed along the walkway. The surfaces of the walkway and entrance gateway are finished with black locust wood.

An entrance gateway and attendant’s station faces acts as the threshold between the landscape and the street.

The plantings of the meadow focus on establishing native plant fodder for the pollinators critical to ecological health of the region, including butterflies, honey bees, and other insects. Plants are selected for low height to retain visibility, vibrant color display during warm seasons and interesting seed pods or stem textures for winter interest.