Freshkills Park Blog

This year the Freshkills Park office had a wonderful group of interns and seasonal staff. As the summer comes to a end, we’d like to express our gratitude for the talented individuals who contributed their ideas, passions, and hard work to the project.

Back in June, artist Volker Goetze performed at Freshkills Park as part of Make Music New York for “Inside the Bird Chorus,” a live, free musical celebration with over 1,200 concerts on streets, sidewalks, and parks across the five boroughs.

Artist Mandi Gavois’ solo show of photographs and sculpture at Galleri Thomas Wallner in Simris, Sweden, includes photographs of Freshkills Park. The show’s central panorama photograph of Freshkills is titled “With the ship comes the wreck,” which is also the title of the show.

Researchers from the College of Staten Island are operating a bird banding station at Freshkills Park for the second consecutive summer. The project is led by Dr. Lisa Manne and Dr. Dick Veit. In 2016, they banded over 20 species of birds, including orchard orioles, hairy woodpeckers, and yellow warblers.

Maksym Cohen is Freshkills Park’s Water Quality Intern for the summer of 2017. He grew up in Port Washington, New York and currently lives in Albertson, New York. He is entering his senior year at the University of San Diego where he is pursuing a degree in Environmental Studies.

In October, 2016, to launch the Field R/D public art initiative, co-curators Mariel Villeré and Dylan Gauthier organized a public boat tour of Confluence, the meeting of two historic rivers at the center of the future Freshkills Park. They invited artists working in the public realm to narrate the trip. 

Maria Huiza is the Summer 2017 Arts+Culture Programs Intern for Freshkills Park. She was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, but she has come to call New York City her second home. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Public Policy with a concentration on Urban Policy at Columbia University.

Contemporary artists have found a new way to recycle discarded objects by transforming them into beautiful artwork. This unconventional technique has proven to be wildly popular and it echoes the Freshkills Park message that trash can be transformed into something beautiful.

Catherine Montalvo (a.k.a “Cat”) is a seasonal Programming Associate at Freshkills Park. She’s from a part of Queens, New York that is known for its expansive beaches and boardwalk. She recently graduated from Syracuse University with a BS in Biology and Minor in American History.

Freshkills Park celebrated summer solstice on June 21 with Make Music New York for “Inside the Bird Chorus” where the woodlands and grasslands meet in South Park. Naturalist Seth Wollney led an auditory bird tour and trumpeter Volker Goetze accompanied their songs in a performance of original and improvisational compositions as the sun set on the longest day of the year.

Charlie Rae O’Brien is the summer 2017 Communications Intern for Freshkills Park. She is from Westfield, New Jersey, and she is a rising junior at The Ohio State University, majoring in Strategic Communications with minors in Business and History.

What are you working on?

In 2016, NYC Parks created a Wildlife Unit in response to the city’s rising wildlife population and the challenges they present—more than 600 native wildlife species currently call our city home. The unit serves as an informed resource for citizens and policymakers, and aims to create a future where urban animals are an understood and appreciated part of the city.

This calendar of public tours and events offers unique opportunities to visit normally closed sections of the landfill-to-park project. Whether kayaking through the creeks, photographing the landscape, or hiking and bicycling along miles of meadows, these free programs invite the public to learn about the project and enjoy large sections of the park before they open.

This summer, New York Road Runners is organizing two free exploratory runs or walks through Freshkills Park! The 3.1 mile and 6.2 mile courses both start and finish near the center of the closed 2,200-acre park. People of all ages are invited to run or walk on trails that take you along waterways and over the hills of the former Fresh Kills Landfill.

Terrance Caviness is a seasonal Programming Associate at Freshkills Park. He grew up in Syracuse, New York and recently graduated from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry with a degree in Environmental Biology.

Freshkills Park is the largest landfill-to-park project in the world, but it isn’t the first or the last of its kind. Over the past few decades, cities all over the world have converted closed landfills into parks. With planning and innovative engineering, these projects have increased the amount of open green space in urban areas, improving the environment and increasing the quality of life for residents.

Despite overcast skies, 900 visitors traveled from all over New York City to visit Freshkills Park during the latest Discovery Day on June 4, 2017. Clouds silhouetted the skyline, creating captivating views from the park’s rolling hills. Steady but gentle winds provided perfect weather for kite flying.

Artists are participating in a new art-research project called “Freshkills Park: Field R/D.” Organized by artist/curator Dylan Gauthier and Freshkills Park’s Mariel Villeré, the project will involve independent and collaborative research, site visits and field trips, shared meals and conversations over the course of several months.

Did you know that the month of May is dedicated to celebrating the importance of wetlands? Back in 1991, the EPA and its partners designated May as American Wetlands Month to educate Americans about the value of wetlands as a natural resource.

Since 2014, photographers have been documenting Freshkills Park’s changing landscape for an ongoing series called Capturing Change. The series aims to generate a community- and artist-driven archive of the site’s transition from landfill to public space. Several photographers have returned multiple times, compelled to explore the park over and over again.