The Children’s Magical Treehouse
A two-story nest built upon an iconic mulberry tree; a play space, Nature Lab, and gathering place where children learn nature by interacting with it.
CHILDREN'S MAGICAL GARDEN | LOWER EAST SIDE | MANHATTAN
“Within the first platform rising through the Mulberry's canopy lives an invitation to every child who has ever looked up at a tree and wondered what it would feel like to belong there.”
Illustrated design for the Children's Magical Treehouse. Design by AreshEarth.
The Children's Magical Treehouse is an adventure play and learning space. It consists of two nest-shaped levels constructed from raw black locust wood.
When stepping into the nest, each child will experience firsthand how alive their surroundings are. Built into the structure is a Nature Lab with leaf-identification panels where a child can identify leaf types and match them to local species. Silhouettes of common Lower East Side birds will be set into the railings: robins, cardinals, hummingbirds, and more. The treehouse serves as an interactive learning space, teaching ecological literacy with every visit, whether a teacher is there or not.
The garden a neighborhood refused to lose
Children's Magical Garden began in 1982, when housing rights activist Carmen Rubio looked across the street at a rubble lot and saw something else. She and her neighbors cleared it by hand and gave the children of the block a place to grow food, touch soil, and feel that this corner of the Lower East Side belonged to them.
Kate Temple-West carries this legacy on. She arrived at the community garden in 1997, learning directly from Carmen how to do the space justice, and has stewarded it for 29 years. Kate is a writer, composter, and herbalist. She guides the garden with her knowledge of the earth, fostering a love for it in the next generation.
Keeping this space took more than getting a little dirt under fingernails; Through 20 years of legal battles, 10 of those spent in court, the community fought for Lot 19. In 1999, a developer's agents cut through the fence, felled a tree the members had planted, and damaged the children's clubhouse. In 2013, workers arrived with power tools and private security. They put a metal fence straight through the garden's interior, cutting off the pizza garden, the rain garden, and the youth meditation area.
Community members joining Children’s Magical Garden in defending the continued existence and development of the space. (2004 - 2024)
The children said no. Their parents said no. The community said no. Their sustained presence became evidence of community possession that the appellate court affirmed in 2018. In 2023, the court granted a permanent injunction protecting the 40-foot Mulberry at the garden's heart, finding its ecosystem worthy of protection in its own right. In March 2024, Lot 19 returned to the community for good, and the neighborhood celebrated by pulling down the fence.
Why a treehouse?
| 0.7 acres | of open space per 1,000 residents in Community District 3; the city recommends 2.5 |
| 84% | of the district's surface is impervious; it ranks 4th of 59 districts on the air-temperature planting index |
| 27.1% | poverty rate in the neighborhood, against 18% citywide |
| ~10,500 | children and youth under 18 living in ZIP 10002 |
In a neighborhood with almost no greenery, Children's Magical Garden is the only freely accessible natural space within walking distance for many Lower East Side families. For these children, this garden is their first and often only contact with living soil, mature trees, and pollinators. Research shows that cutting children off from the natural world has harmful effects, including diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, weaker ecological stewardship. This treehouse will bridge that gap.
The team
This treehouse is the work of neighbors, teachers, apprentices, and builders who have been in this garden for decades
Aresh Javadi (AreshEarth) — Project Director, Designer & Artist: More Gardens’ Executive Director, renowned environmental artist, living willow architect, and community collaborative designer with 28 years of NYC community garden work and 23 years with Children's Magical Garden, including active participation in the garden's legal defense.
Roderick Wolgemott Romero — Paid Build Adviser: Master treehouse designer and builder, featured in National Geographic, The New York Times, and museum collections internationally. Roderick advised throughout the grant period, bringing decades of wisdom on structural safety and ecological integration.
Ian Weedman — Builder & Structural Artisan: Elite treehouse builder and structural artisan with experience on four continents. His celebrated Sandy Remix at Brooklyn Botanic Garden transformed 18 storm-felled species into an elevated 200-square-foot observation nest. Ian leads the build site.
Ms. Mirella Rodriguez — Curriculum Lead: A Pre-K 4 teacher at PS 20 Anna Silver, school partnering with Children's Magical Garden. Ms. Rodriguez co-develops the bilingual Nature Lab curriculum.
Kate Temple-West — President, Children's Magical Garden: Steward of the community garden since 1997. Kate led the garden's youth earth club, first nature summer program, and her spring 2024 plant inventory and soil-zone assessment establishes the ecological baseline for all Nature Lab research.
Lissette Perez & Jess Ventura — Co-Directors, Children's Magical Garden: Lissette and Jess co-direct the children's programming and operations for the garden. Lissette leads bilingual community outreach, garden events, SYEP coordination, and curriculum support; Jess manages organizational and financial oversight.
The Door Train & Earn Apprentices — Paid youth build crew: More Gardens has mentored more than 90 apprentices through The Door's Train & Earn program, a career pathway initiative for young people ages 16 to 24. For two years they have worked at Children's Magical Garden, owing to restore the stage, repairing garden furniture, installing raised beds. For the treehouse they will be a carpentry crew working alongside internationally renowned builders, learning to work with natural Black Locust and to support helical pile installation.