Liam Kavanaugh - Nature Triumphant: Trees in the Modern Metropolis

MHG Meetings

Sponsored By: Metro Hort Group

Mr. Kavanagh will talk about his efforts to improve the quality and increase the number of well maintained greenspaces in public parks throughout New York. He traces his involvement in the field to the renovation of the gardens along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade in 1989, where a great gardener and a willing crew of helpers transformed a lackluster landscape into a showpiece. It remains one of his most memorable projects and it demonstrated the tremendous opportunities for growing great gardens in parks throughout the City. “People respond positively to well maintained greenspaces,” Mr. Kavanagh notes, “they’ve become a hallmark of successful public spaces.”

Liam Kavanagh is the First Deputy Commissioner at NYC Parks. A lifelong New Yorker, Mr. Kavanagh was born in Manhattan, raised in the Bronx, and now resides in Brooklyn. A graduate of the City University’s Herbert H. Lehman College, Mr. Kavanagh joined Parks in 1981. He has served as Brooklyn Forestry Director, Deputy Chief of Operations in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and Chief of Operations in Manhattan before his appointment as Deputy Commissioner by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe on February 25, 2002.