17 Facts About Lynden Miller

Lynden B Miller was born on December 8,1938 and is an author, an advocate for public parks and gardens, and a garden designer, best known for her restoration of the Conservatory Garden in New York's Central Park, completed in 1987.

Lynden Miller attended Chapin School, and graduated from Smith College, where she studied art and spent her junior year abroad at the University of Florence.

Lynden Miller pursued a career in fine art painting which spanned 18 years.

Lynden Miller experimented with a broad palette of colors and range of native flora, shrubs, annuals and perennials to create her signature painterly plantings.

In 1982, Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, a friend who at the time was the Administrator of Central Park, invited Lynden Miller to help restore the Conservatory Garden, six neglected and vandalized acres located near Fifth Avenue and 104th Street.

Lynden Miller raised the money for the project herself, and recruited volunteers to help her replant the overgrown East Harlem garden.

Lynden Miller's efforts came at a time when the park was considered by some to be dangerous.

Lynden Miller has been lauded for designs and renewals of numerous urban spaces such as Bryant Park and referred to as "New York City's very own Miss Rumphius" for bringing beauty to everyone.

In 1996, Lynden Miller was asked to update the gardens at Columbia in time for the Centennial observation of their move to the Morningside campus.

At Princeton, Lynden Miller was invited in 2005 to work with Michael Van Valkenburgh as the university's consulting gardening architect, focusing on the 17 gardens that are distributed throughout the campus.

Lynden Miller is adamant about working on public gardens rather than private properties.

Lynden Miller has lectured widely on garden design, horticulture and advocacy for public spaces.

Lynden Miller has written articles for numerous magazines and botanical publications including Fine Gardening, the Royal Horticultural Society Journal, American Nurseryman, and American Horticulturist.

Lynden Miller started teaching at NYU in 2006 as an adjunct professor in their Urban Design and Architecture Program.

Lynden Miller serves on the Boards of the Central Park Conservancy, the New York Botanical Garden and New Yorkers for Parks.

Lynden Miller is a member of the Friends of the Botanic Garden Advisory Committee at Smith College.

Lynden Miller is married to Leigh Lynden Miller and has two sons, Marshall and Gifford and two step-sons, Ethan and Christian.