Park Avenue is a new manmade ‘forest’ consisting of a large tree-like canopy built from structural bamboo. The new landscape’s complex, tree-like forms would generate a pattern that reflects light and shadow, visually engaging visitors during the day. Carefully orchestratedLED lighting integrated with the structure would also provide a gentle, nature-friendly, light display at night. We believe that cities need nature and eco-systems; this led us to this design, based on biophilic design principles, driven by the direct an analogous use of natural materials and forms. Our aim is to take the Park Avenue median footprint and widen it to generate this new ‘savanna’ environment, weaving nature into the everyday life of Manhattan.

The experience of the outdoors and connection to nature would be achieved through the complex geometric pattern of the canopy, which would be produced in resilient, self-supporting structural engineered bamboo, in natural tones. The canopy design derives from a complex three-dimensional pattern that redefines the idea of nature in cities. Its visual appearance on the urban horizon line is based on a fractal dimension between1.3 and 1.5, reflecting the savanna profile.