Lawnfire of the Vanities

I appreciated James Andrew Billingsley’s recent takedown (“Shore Things,” #43/44) of the cynical-yet-vibeless vanity project that is Little Island. Little Island’s warm reception by the East Coast design press has baffled me for years. On its opening, one coworker suggested backhandedly that Little Island’s prominence could at least prompt a new cultural and professional recognition of landscape architecture. Like a Marvel movie or a Business Improvement District, Little Island seems to function primarily as a billboard for itself, desperately petitioning New Yorkers and future clients for recognition without offering much substance or even much occupiable public space. I let out a bitter, Krabappelian “ha!” when the Cultural Landscape Foundation used an image of Little Island to advertise a 2021 symposium titled “Courageous by Design.” With courage like this, who needs cowardice?