Central Landing
2024
Central Landing
The Central Landing is a significant location on Hart Island where institutional buildings once stood until their removal in 2022 to make the island safe for visitors and create new burial space. A chapel built by Catholic Charities in 1931 remains a ruin.
This area became active for adult burials around 2010, and many COVID-19 burials were conducted here between 2020 and 2022. Beginning in June 2024, the size of mass graves in this area increased by 33% to 200 adults per plot.
Due to its proximity to the ferry, this area is easily accessible for visitors. New York City Parks is planning to build a visitor center nearby.
Meadows Planting and Grave Reuse
Adult burials during Covid-19 Pandemic 2020
In April 2020, drone footage of Hart Island's mass burials was broadcast worldwide, bringing attention to a burial practice that has been in use since 1872. Although prison labor is no longer used, these large-scale plots are now considered both culturally and environmentally unacceptable.
The nineteenth-century practice of mass burial is unsustainable, particularly with the imminent threat of sea level rise. "Landscape of Hope" is a proof-of-concept plan that shows how New York City can transition from the current eight-foot-deep mass graves to individual burials that are only three feet deep.
Landscape of Hope
This project was conducted in collaboration with landscape architecture researchers at The Ohio State University Knowlton School and was made possible with support of the Lily Auchicloss Foundation and through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Landscape Design Team Members: Jake Boswell, Jack Gruber, Brendan Ayer and Melinda Hunt
©2025 The Hart Island Project
