These jewel-like courtyard gardens adorn an upscale residential and retail development on both sides of historic Front Street at Peck Slip, near the South Street Seaport. The adaptive reuse project combined eleven restored 19th-century maritime buildings with three new infill structures. Like the architecture, each garden is a modern twist on the site’s natural and cultural history: iron columns, pulleys and winches. A green oasis in a hardscape environment, the courtyards offer an attractive amenity to residents.

This garden is modeled on a tidal marsh or bog such as might have claimed the site hundreds of years ago. A stream meanders through a lush, green center, strewn with pebbles and roughly shaped bluestone stepping stones. Grasses, bracken and woody plants complete the naturalistic setting. Historic cast iron columns anchor a stainless steel pergola hung with ivy to shade seating along the paved perimeter.