When I was approaching the David Rubenstein Atrium space at Lincoln Center, I came across the new Charles B. Benenson Grove, near the south end of Lincoln Center. The grove officially opened in May of last spring, and if you go to this link, you can see photos of it with the trees in leaf.
From a distance, I immediately, unenthusiastically assumed that these trees were Carpinus betulus - the go-to plant for 'architectural' or 'contemporary' landscapes. But the green-hued bark and the smaller buds quickly corrected that assumption.
A dried leaf - triangular in shape - was a clue that this was a species of aspen and indeed the literature on the aforementioned link names them as quaking aspens or Populus tremuloides.
A strange choice to me, since the trees (though lovely when the leaves flutter so easily in a summer breeze) are relatively short-lived and prone to pests and disease. A colonial species, it's a tough survivor in its youth but as the plant ages it falls suspect to various problems. Their placement also seemed curiously close together, considering they quickly can reach spreads of twenty feet. As you can see, they are placed barely more than 5' apart.
Of course, I've already ranted today about overplanted areas once, so I don't want to belabor this point. But, I think this planting could have been sufficient with probably half the specimens, unless of course the designers (uncredited in the link I posted above, but here Mathews Nielson is credited), anticipated that a percentage of the trees would fail more quickly than others.
Indeed, wear and tear is already showing - I am really hoping that this damage occurred after construction and the construction administrator didn't miss out on rejecting such a rough-looking specimen! I'm curious what readers think -- I like Mathews Nielsen's work very much but am puzzled by this particular layout and species selection.
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