Rutgers ecologists to design park for Beijing Olympics Archived article from May 10, 2004 By Michele Hujber   Beijing Olympic site Rutgers ecologists, in collaboration with botanists from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, are designing Forest Park at the site of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, as seen in this artist's rendering. The team won an international competition for its natural landscaping design of the 2,200-acre site, about three times the size of New York City's Central Park. Photo by Mike McCann, Sasaski Associates Inc. A team of ecologists at Rutgers is designing a Beijing, China, park three times the size of Manhattan’s Central Park for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The team, in collaboration with botanists from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, won an international competition for its design. Working with Sasaki Associates, a landscape architecture and planning company in Boston, the group formulated the ecological basis of the 2,200-acre park, including lake, stream, meadow and woodland habitats. The team members from Rutgers and the botanic garden are part of a collaboration known as the Center for Urban Restoration Ecology, or CURE. “The complex ecological design aims to maximize biodiversity on this site, which is surrounded by the huge city,” said Steven Handel, director of CURE and a professor in the department of ecology, evolution and natural resources at Cook College. He said that solving issues of reintroduction of native plants and animals, invasive species control, water management and plant-animal interactions is critical for long-term success. Handel said that the park will become a central feature of Beijing’s natural environment, adding ecological services and biodiversity to the capital of the world’s most populous country. “It will be a major tourist attraction, exhibiting the natural history of Beijing, and will complement the many cultural sites of the ancient city,” he said. Steven Clemants of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and co-director of CURE, said, “This is a great opportunity not only to create a park, but also to better understand what the native biodiversity of the region is and to reintroduce that native biodiversity to the citizens of Beijing.” CURE was invited to contribute the ecological and botanical components of the competition entry by Sasaki Associates, which coordinated the proposal. In addition, the Tsinghua University Urban Planning and Design Institute in Beijing provided design and administrative help. The ecologists, botanists and landscape designers will work together in groups that address plant, animal and landscape issues. The team draws upon the expertise of faculty from a broad assortment of disciplines at Rutgers, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Michigan State University, Beijing University and Tsinghua University. Rutgers participants include CURE members Handel; Joanna Burger, who holds joint appointments in the departments of cell biology and neuroscience and ecology, evolution and natural resources; and Jean Marie Hartman of the department of landscape architecture. Additional Rutgers team members include: Joan Ehrenfeld and Jason Grabosky of the department of ecology, evolution and natural resources; Michael Gochfeld of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute; William Meyer and Jim Murphy of the department of plant biology and pathology; Christopher Obropta of the department of environmental sciences; and Mikael Forup, a post-doctoral student at CURE.

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