In 2007, Toyota provided funding to transform this site from a basic vegetable garden into an innovative, outdoor children's learning experience. Toyota commissioned landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh to design the garden’s restoration. The Charles Eliot Professor in Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a principal at the design firm, MVVA, Van Valkenburgh brought a fresh perspective to the revitalization of this shared green space.

To prepare the garden for restoration, New York Restoration Project (NYRP) construction crews performed demolition and grading procedures on the site, cleared debris and garbage and installed various hardscape features. Over the course of six months, NYRP horticulture and design teams worked hand-in-hand with local residents and Van Valkenburgh to realize the community’s vision for this newly renovated gem, which includes four distinct habitat areas that NYRP and New York City educators can use to present environmental education programming to neighborhood youth.

The front of the space features an upland habitat garden. Moving through the site on a reclaimed, white-marble walkway – situated beneath a lush kiwi vine supported by a steel arbor made by Brooklyn artisans – visitors pass both acidic soil and woodland gardens. The back of the space houses a wetland habitat fed by rainwater harvested from the roof of an adjacent building. Benches – also made by Brooklyn artisans from black locust – provide seating throughout the garden, which is fronted by a lot-wide tree pit on the sidewalk that creates a bioswale to decrease the flow of stormwater going into the sewer system. Toyota's gift has allowed NYRP to make substantial capital improvements in the garden – which opened to the public in 2008 – including seating areas for outdoor classes; trees, shrubs, and flowers; and planting beds, a tool shed and water storage and composting facilities.

Toyota's generosity further allows NYRP to conduct ongoing outreach with local youth development programs and nearby schools, which number more that 50 public, private and parochial elementary and secondary institutions located in close proximity to the garden – including the Children’s Workshop School, MS 361. During the summer of 2009, NYRP held its Sustainable Series – a lecture series on sustainable gardening and design practices – in the Toyota Children’s Learning Garden, one session featuring a guest talk led by members of Van Valkenburgh’s design team.

Located in Manhattan’s East Village, the 1,600-square-foot garden provides one of the few green spots in a community comprised primarily of one- and two-family homes, multi-family apartments and small businesses. Residents of this diverse neighborhood are primarily of Hispanic, Asian and African-American descent, including more than 22,000 children under the age of 18.