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Vertical Ecologies is an ecological intervention on the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel ventilation tower, situated off Governors Island, New York City. Drawing upon both the island’s history of attracting community-led urban ecological practices and the recent development on the island that is leading to the large-scale displacement of such practices, the proposal seeks to recover the island’s grassroots potential through the introduction of a vertical urban farm.

Simple processes of lightweight grafting are performed to wrap around the monolithic and inaccessible ventilation tower. The fully accessible ramp guides visitors and urban farmers up the entirety of the tower’s height. Aluminium pipes attached to this ramp serve as water pipes that empower vertical hydroponics, a form of farming advantageous in urban settings. As one moves up the ramp, the pipes gradually open up to reveal views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Governors Island. At the top, a new slab and soil layer is added to create a wilded garden hosting farm-to-table dining and civic events.

If the picturesque gardens of the eighteenth century embody an idea of gardens as an extremely resource-intensive and heavily visual construction, in which entirely new topographical and landscape features are fabricated to ‘look natural,’ Vertical Ecologies seeks to do the opposite: it works with what’s already at the site in a lightweight sense, and embraces the deeply communal processes of farming and dining to make room for grassroots practices.