The 16 palm trees at the Winter Garden Atrium at Brookfield Place in Battery Park City are a long way from Florida, but are settling into their new home nicely.

There were 16 new Washingtonia Robusta palm trees installed, which took over for older ones that were typically getting replaced after 10 years.

What You Need To Know

  • There are 16 palm trees in the Winter Garden Atrium at Brookfield Place in Battery Park City

  • The trees are replaced around every 10 years

  • The installation is part of a three-year project focused on finding the right trees in Florida, with landscape partner John Mini Distinctive Landscapes

Since the 1990s, Brookfield Properties has worked with Bronx-born and Rockland County-based Mark Mini, from John Mini Distinctive Landscapes, to care for the trees.

“It’s an iconic image. It’s an iconic part of New York City, and we are just really happy to keep on that stewardship,” said Laura Montross, vice president of Brookfield Properties. 

“The actual installation happens in 12 nights of overnight work, eight nights of removing the old palm trees, setting up the planter beds and getting ready for the new ones, and four precise nights of installing the new ones,” Mini added. 

Mini said the project really starts three years before the installation, as their team searches Florida for just the right palm trees for the Winter Garden space.

The 16 winners are around 35 feet tall, selected from 2,000 palm trees that were very methodically analyzed and measured and assessed. The trees are brought from Florida to Lower Manhattan, traveling in sets of four.

“One truck with four palm trees leaves Florida. It arrives in New York about two days later," Mini said. "That night, we have to plant those four, the next day another truck is leaving. That arrives two days later, those four arrive, we plant those four, and then again, until we plant all 16 in four nights."

The trees can grow 1 to 2 feet every year in the atrium environment, and reach heights of around 55 feet before it’s time for removal. The palm trees remain a unique addition to an indoor space, and serve as an inspiration for other spaces too.

“In 1988, when these palm trees were first installed, it set a new precedent for what an indoor public space could be like in New York City, and it was not common to have this type of exotic vegetation, especially at the scale you see behind me in the center of New York City,” Montross said. 

As for the old palms, they are cut down piece by piece and used for mulch. 

Mini said this fall, 16 native New York trees will be planted in their honor, using the mulch from the old trees.