Alliance Salutes Landscape Design Legend

When Christian Zimmerman came to the Prospect Park Alliance in 1990, Brooklyn’s Backyard looked a lot different than it does today. The Alliance had just been formed and, after decades of decline, the park’s historic structures and natural areas were in need of dedicated care and attention.

For 35 years, that’s how Zimmerman spent his days, moving up through the ranks at Prospect Park Alliance to lead an award-winning team of architects, landscape architects, horticulturalists, arborists, ecologists and more in an unprecedented and historic transformation of the park.

Zimmerman recently bid farewell in his role as Prospect Park Alliance’s Chief Landscape Architect and Vice President of Capital and Landscape Management. But his vision and legacy live on in the thriving landscape he stewarded for decades.

Many of the Park’s most treasured destinations owe much of their popularity to Zimmerman’s design vision. In the mid-1990s, he oversaw the restoration of the Ravine, Brooklyn’s last remaining upland forest and an area now beloved by visitors seeking solitude in the heart of the park. Zimmerman revived the Ravine’s network of waterfalls, ponds, streams and shoreline, bringing the park’s watercourse back to life. He also led the restoration of Lakeside, the 26 acres in the southeast corner of the park, which includes the LeFrak Center at Lakeside as well as the Shelby White Esplanade and Baier Music Island. This year-round destination on the shoreline of the Lake brought back Olmsted’s historic design while introducing a LEED-certified, AIA Honor Award winning facility for skating, boating, pickleball, water play and more.

LeFrak Center at Lakeside, which opened to the public in 2013 c. Michael Moran

And more of Zimmerman’s legacy is still on the horizon: the restoration of the Vale in the northeast corner of the park is breaking ground this spring, while the restoration of Lakeshore, the remaining stretches of the Lake’s shoreline, is in the final stages of the design process.

Originally from North Dakota, Zimmerman moved to New York City in 1988, and worked as a landscape designer for the NYC Parks Department before joining the recently-formed Alliance. Before his retirement, Zimmerman received numerous awards for his historic preservation and landscape design work, including being named a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the recipient of The Olmsted Network’s 2024 Olmsted Stewardship Award.

But his greatest legacy is the imprint he’s left on the landscape. “I’ve gotten to spend my entire career bringing one beloved place back to life,” said Zimmerman. “Which I don’t take lightly.”

Zimmerman recently participated in a fireside chat with Mark Hough, the author of Design through Time: Evolving Landscapes, from Alcatraz to Prospect Park. Watch the event on the Prospect Park Alliance YouTube Channel!