El Barrio Community Garden

Sponsored by Target

This welcoming green space in upper Manhattan represents the second New York Restoration Project (NYRP) community garden revitalization accomplished with the support of Target. The garden’s renovation was envisioned by nationally acclaimed designer and television host Sean Conway, who also designed the Target Community Garden in Brooklyn and the Target Bronx Community Garden. In collaboration with NYRP and local residents, Conway and NYRP implemented a garden design that is not only visually distinctive, but highly utilitarian.

Re-opened in October 2008, residents and visitors to El Barrio Community Garden pass through iron gates leading into a stone pathway, which then transitions into a lush, green lawn that is bordered by a stone seating wall. Raised perennial and vegetable garden beds spotlight the hard work of the community, making it a focal point of this neighborhood gathering place. Large, red disks on poles at the garden’s entrance provide shade to a plaza and patio, while a built-in irrigation system, fed by a rainwater harvesting mechanism, dramatically reduces dependence on local water supplies.