June 28, 2005

Larry Silverstein has hired landscape architect Peter Walker to design landscaping for the soon-to-be redesigned 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower, according to Bud Peronne, a spokesperson for Silverstein. Walker is already working with architect Michael Arad on the World Trade Center Memorial, which is located just south of the tower.

Walker could not be reached for comment on his dual roles at the site, and his firm, Berkeley, California-based Peter Walker and Partners Landscape Architecture, would not release any details on the Freedom Tower landscaping. Arad asked Walker to collaborate on the memorial design last winter, after his entry was named as a finalist in the competition which the two won. Walker added dense patterns of trees and landscape elements to what was initially a fairly barren design.

Walker’s firm has also designed the Nasher Sculpture Center and Saitama Sky Forest Plaza, which both won American Society of Landscape Architects professional awards in 2004.

Sam Lubell