Riverbank Arrival Court

Firmly believing that the car and the pedestrian can safely co-exist in controlled and well-articulated landscape spaces, a 1980’s vehicular arrival court was re-envisioned as garden courtyard. Accommodating daily drop-offs, deliveries and parking garage entry and exits, driveways and pathways share a common plaza textured unit paver surface. Tall columnar native Red Maples are threaded between the car and pedestrian surfaces to unify the tall building enclosure further spatially. The courtyard’s previous public face of tall fences and brick piers were removed to reveal a dense woodland grove that provides a leafy ceiling to guide residents and visitors to the building lobby. New stately Elm street trees merge with the Maples’ canopies, which extends the building’s greensward into the street’s public realm and further highlights the urban garden destination from its “landscape-starved” neighborhood. This distinctive and memorable arrival court provides a hospitable “rest-bit” anecdote in the tradition of New York’s most revered “vest-pocket” parks.