MANHATTAN — The American Museum of Natural History has announced a plan to cut down fewer trees under its controversial proposal to expand into city parkland — but some opponents continue to bark about the project.
An English elm and a Pin oak, located in Theodore Roosevelt Park near the museum’s Columbus Avenue entrance at 79th Street, would be saved in the museum's bid to erect a new $325 million Gilder Center.
Seven other trees are still expected to be removed under the plan.
“Saving these trees is the most recent demonstration of the Museum's efforts to be a thoughtful community partner,” said Upper West Side Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal, who noted that the conservation of the trees showed the museum’s willingness “to take steps to do all it can to address community issues while maintaining the important mission of this center.”
The decision to keep the two trees came after consulting with the city’s Parks Department and the Park Working Group, which is co-chaired by the museum and Friends of Roosevelt Park and includes local government and civic leaders, the museum said. It was based on an assessment from Bartlett Tree Experts regarding the long-term health and survival of the trees, including their ability to withstand severe storms and the likelihood that they would survive the construction process in good condition.
Nearly 4,000 neighbors have expressed their outrage at community board meetings, town halls and by picketing, critics said — and the latest announcement did little to change the hearts and minds of some opponents.
"The museum's toxic plan is an environmental, social and economic assault on our neighborhood. It can't be excused and won't be accepted, no matter how the museum tries to pacify park advocates,” said advocate Cary Goodman.
He was also incensed that the city’s new capital budget included $17 million for the museum’s proposed expansion, especially since the funding was approved without any hearing by local Community Board 7.
"It is outrageous that the museum, which is a private organization, is getting public funds to destroy and annex public park land," said Goodman, who is part of a group called Greeners for Margaret Meade Green, which is a lawn in Roosevelt Park dedicated to the famed anthropologist, as well as one of the few public spaces in the city dedicated to women.
The 218,000-square-foot expansion plan — which already shrank its original footprint on the parkland — would bring more room for education, exhibitions, laboratories and more. It would include a new theater devoted to “invisible worlds,” like microscopic creatures, the human brain and the depths of the ocean. There would be a new insect hall to display a larger portion of the museum's 16 million-insect specimen collection.
The project’s landscape architect Joe James of the firm Reed Hildebrand has said that all of the park's current uses — including sitting quietly with a book or strolling with kids — would be preserved by the landscape design, which will add new benches, replicate pathways and replace lost trees.
Margaret Meade Green, however, was not among the list of preserved parts of the park, Goodman noted.
The museum's new addition is expected to open at the end of 2019 along Columbus Avenue at West 79th Street.
