[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 51 (Friday, April 19, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E590]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO LYNDEN B. MILLER

                                 ______


                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 18, 1996

  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I am especially pleased today to bring to 
the attention of my colleagues Mrs. Lynden B. Miller, my close personal 
friend, whose years of behind-the-scene service to the public is 
deserving of a very special tribute. We owe a debt of gratitude to 
Lynden who, as a designer of public gardens, has made an immeasurable 
contribution of beauty and grace to the great parks and public spaces 
of New York City.
  Lynden Miller's most recent and notable contribution is on view in 
Bryant Park, on 6 acres located behind the New York Public Library. The 
city of New York closed Bryant Park in the late 1980's because it had 
become a haven for crime. In 1992, after 5 years of renovation, and 
with gardens newly designed by Lynden, Bryant Park was triumphantly re-
opened. Since its opening, 10,000 visitors walk through the garden each 
day, rejuvenated by Lynden's pallet of spiraeas, hydrangeas, foxgloves, 
sedums, phlox, hollyhocks and Japanese anemones set in borders 300 feet 
long by 12 feet deep. Today, due largely to Lynden's vision of the 
possibilities for public space, Bryant Park has been transformed into 
an oasis of peace and elegance in the midst of busy midtown Manhattan.
  As the director of the Conservatory Garden in Central Park since 
1982, Lynden has again defied expectations. This northeastern most area 
of Central Park was designed in the 1930's as an Italianate estate 
garden. Fifty years later, at the time Lynden was appointed to take on 
its renaissance, it has been abandoned. After 14 years of Lynden's 
direction of garden design, relentless fundraising and staff 
supervision, the Conservatory Garden of Central Park has become one of 
the great jewels in the greatest public park in the world. Under 
Lynden's guidance, the Conservatory Garden has also remained a 
community institution serving residents of both upper Fifth Avenue and 
some of the blighted neighborhoods of East Harlem.
  Other public spaces which bear Lynden's signature include the garden 
at the Central Park Zoo, portions of the New York Botanical Gardens, 
Wagner Park at Battery Park City, spring and summer annuals at Grand 
Army Plaza in Brooklyn, gardens at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, and Herald 
& Greeley Squares. She is on the Boards of Directors of the United 
States National Advisory Council for the National Arboretum in 
Washington, DC, and New York City's Central Park Conservancy and The 
Parks Council, among others. Lynden also lectures and participates in 
symposiums in the United States and abroad. She has written several 
articles and essays on garden design.
  Lynden owes her sense of color to her training as an artist. She was 
a successful studio artist from 1967 until 1982 and has had several 
gallery shows in London and New York. She was educated at Smith 
College, the New York Botanical Gardens, Chelsea-Westminster College in 
London, and the University of Maryland.
  I am very proud to pay tribute to Lynden Miller, who for fourteen 
years has been quietly dedicated to the well-being and beauty of New 
York City's most frequented public spaces. I ask my colleagues to join 
with me today in celebration of Lynden for her many wondrous botanical 
gifts to the millions of residents and visitors of the city of New 
York.

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