From the top of its 50-foot-high, green-tinted, cast glass cone down to the embracing arms of its stainless steel-sheathed, leaf-patterned walls, the new Eastern Parkway entrance at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden links 52 acres of theme spaces, including the Japanese Hill and Pond, an herb garden, a fragrance garden, and 12,000 varieties of plants harbored inside with sky, light, and earth.

The designers created 12-foot-high curved walls rising on both sides of the entrance and sheathed in stainless steel with an etched cherry tree leaf pattern. The 16-foot wide gates between them are of the same material, however the leaf pattern here is water-jet cut creating a stainless steel grille for viewing into the garden when the gates are closed. Behind the gates, the Garden’s ticket and information booths are sunken into an earth berm. The centerpiece of the entrance is a 50-foot high, cast glass cone which functions as a sundial. Flanking the new entrance are three custom-designed flag poles displaying permanent identification for the Garden, as well as colorful banners that are changeable on a seasonal basis.

The project was recognized in by Applied Arts, Creative Quarterly, Graphis, Novum World of Graphic Design (Germany), Print Regional Design Annual, segdDESIGN, and the Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) for Design Excellence in Environmental Graphic Design.