 BPC People – Anne O’Neill
Title: Director of Horticulture, Sustainability, and Landscape Design
Favorite Spot in BPC: Wagner Park
Born in sunny South East Ireland, Anne O’Neill hails from a farm family with local roots of more than a thousand years. Ms. O’Neill graduated from the University College Dublin, Ireland with a Bachelor of Commerce degree and an interest in horticulture. After graduation, Anne worked as an underwriter for a Government export credit insurance company, and also set up a mushroom and organic vegetable farm.
As a head gardener in her native Ireland, Ms. O’Neill headed to New York City in the early 1990s. Here, she started as a community horticulturist at the New York Botanical Garden before moving to Fordham University, where she was responsible for the gardens in the Rosehill Campus and introduced best practices throughout campus grounds. Ms. O’Neill’s career then took her the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where she worked as a curator for more than a decade.
Recently, Ms. O’Neill has developed and maintained the gardens and grounds of a 70-acre estate, which included design and installation functions, management of a multi-million dollar budget, and team of professional gardener and grounds maintenance staff. In her spare time, Ms. O’Neill has volunteered for more than a decade at Pratt institute, overseeing and directing the restoration of Pratt’s Rose Garden. She also served as an advisor to the President and Executive staff on matters regarding the roses and campus grounds in general.
Aside from volunteering, Ms. O’Neill enjoys kayaking, theatre, and experiencing the overall buzz of the city. And she considers herself most fortunate that her interests and profession are inter-connected, especially in a place as special as Battery Park City. “What I would hope here is that the Parks are a beautiful, useble, friendly environment. And that people can be out there anytime and find it to be healing and restorative.” |
