Ross Myren - Teaching Garden for GrowNYC

[full site model at 1/4" = 1'-0"] : Zero waste, low cost; bamboo & dried flowers harvested from my local community garden, repurposed drop cloth, bolts & twine purchased. All other modeling materials sourced from material reuse shelves. Mohair-twig trees in collaboration with Maya McGlynn; pergola, planters and people by Maya.

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In the Spring of 2022, nine students collaborated with GrowNYC to plan and design the relocation of its urban farm and teaching garden on Governors Island to a new site within the island’s historic district. Those students were Jillian Carlisle, Joyce Chan, Alia Henry, Yasmeen John, Rachel Markowitz, Maya McGlynn, Ross Myren, Cole Neff, and Noah Sass.

To be accomplished over a two-year period, our proposal includes the construction of a new teaching pavilion and outdoor kitchen, a greenhouse, and a pergola. The studio sought to strike a balance between the need to keep students and produce safe, and the desire to re-engage the public through different degrees of porosity and accessibility; while still considering the greater historical adjacencies and context within which the new site lies.

With a shared perspective on zero-waste, the new structures are designed to be disassembled at the end of their useful life, while in the meantime serving as a framework to be adapted and built upon over time to address the changing needs of GrowNYC.

This summer, GrowNYC will seek agency approval for the design while students continue to refine the project; spending time developing system drawings and diagrams that study - in detail - how the design will affect the ecological and social dynamic of the site alongside the construction documents necessary to realize the project. Further, students will prototype at full-scale the garden's entryway (to be constructed on the existing site then later disassembled and moved to the new site); while experimenting and testing at a smaller scale how the design will stand up to forces of wind and other extreme weather conditions. The team will open a design collaboration with the public through hosting weekend events on the Island centered around the making of marks, impressions and pathways, histories, and collective memories.

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All models, drawings, and photos depicted on this page are by Ross Myren, unless otherwise specified.

Maya setting her scale figures in the site model before the final presentation.

Early site plan study for the Teaching Garden, before the boundary was changed. Drawn with Maya in our home printer's scanner.

Most recent site plan, to be updated as the project develops. Here, you can see the garden's adjacency to the historic Colonel's Row houses to the west, the National Park Service land with Fort Jay to the north, and the Parade Ground to the east. The Teaching Pavilion & Outdoor Kitchen are situated at the northern end of the site, surrounded by the cut-flower garden & raised growing beds. Running parallel to Comfort Road, a pergola links the education-focused northern end of the site to the production-oriented southern side - which takes advantage of the wide-open solar exposure to grow produce in a new greenhouse & also directly in the ground.

Rendered northern approach along Comfort Road

Outdoor Kitchen [modeled at 1/4" = 1'-0"] : a place for children to wash freshly harvested produce & learn how to cook it!

Isometric drawing of the Teaching Pavilion & Kitchen structure, without the roof. Set on helical piles, the structure is designed to stand without the need for concrete footings, allowing for ease of disassembly and relocation in the future.

An interior perspective of the kitchen side!

The structure utilizes steel cables for cross-bracing between posts!