Ralph Appelbaum Associates

A collaboration between Poets House and the Battery Park City Authority, the Poetry Path included fragments from poems reaching across time, space, and cultures, featuring over 40 poets whose work considers the relationships between people, nature, and the urban landscape. Poets House resides directly in Battery Park City and is a national 60,000-volume poetry library, creative workspace, and literary center that invites poets and the public to step into the living tradition of poetry.

The Path ran throughout Battery Park City, from Rockefeller Park’s north end to the marina at Brookfield Place. The poetry was been placed carefully within the park, in conversation with the natural landscape, surrounding buildings, and transit locations.

Making their way through the park and along the Poetry Path, visitors encountered the works not only at their line of sight on panels and benches, but also on embedded stone and bronze pavers and viewing banners, as they admired the lush trees in the park, the Hudson riverfront, and the towering buildings in the sky.

The project aimed to build meaningful connections between poetry, place, and landscape—as well as increase awareness of Poets House—through unique, fun, and unexpected encounters.