the site

In the late summer of 2025, we begin cleaning up, securing and caring for our vacant lot. With a grant from Awesome Newburgh in September, we organize our first event, activating the site and block with a community tree planting project. Coordinating with our neighbors, we plant 10 street trees, set up infrastructure for keeping them watered with collected rainfall, and add custom-built protectors and signage. Along the way, we learn much about local code ordinances, both existing and otherwise, and about trees. In November, we are awarded another grant, from the Architectural League of New York and the New York State Council on the Arts, to pursue our ideas for constructing the tool library facility. We collect 20 yards of salvaged woodchips from local arborists, 10 yards of cow and horse manure from a nearby farm, and 80 bales of local hay. Using these biomaterials to create an 18” layer of what will become fertile and nutrient-rich soil, we terrace and landscape the lot, creating platforms for the tool library facility and outdoor programming space, and then plant a crop of winter rye over the entire site.