Warrie price biography

Public park in Manhattan, New York

"Battery Park" redirects here. For other uses, see Battery Park (disambiguation).

The Battery, formerly known as Battery Park, is a acre (10&#;ha) public park located at the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City facing New York Harbor. It is bounded by Battery Place on the north, with Bowling Green to the northeast, State Street on the east, New York Harbor to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. The park contains attractions such as an early 19th-century fort named Castle Clinton; multiple monuments; and the SeaGlass Carousel. The surrounding area, known as South Ferry, contains multiple ferry terminals, including the Staten Island Ferry's Whitehall Terminal; a boat launch to the Statue of Liberty National Monument (which includes Ellis Island and Liberty Island); and a boat launch to Governors Island.

The park and surrounding area is named for the artillery batteries that were built in the late 17th century to protect the fort and settlement behind them. By the s, the Battery had become an entertainment destination and promenade, with the conversion of Castle Clinton into a theater venue. During the midth century, the modern-day Battery Park was laid out and Castle Clinton was converted into an immigration and customs center. The Battery was commonly known as the landing point for immigrants arriving in New York City until , when the immigration center was relocated to Ellis Island in the middle of the harbor. Castle Clinton (sometimes called, Castle Garden) then hosted the New York Aquarium from to

By the 20th century, the quality of Battery Park had started to decline, and several new structures were proposed within the park, many of which were not built. In , the entirety of Battery Park was closed for twelve years due to the construction of the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel and the Battery Park Underpass. The park reopened in after a renovation, but then subsequently went

I am a civic servant who has been involved in non profit/government work throughout my professional life.

In , I founded The Battery Conservancy to rebuild and revitalize the historic Battery, the twenty-three acre park at the tip of Manhattan, New York, and to bring back to dynamic use the park’s national monument, Castle Clinton.  With a great board of directors and inspired government partners, we have raised over $62 million to fulfill these goals over the past twelve years.

How would you define a cultural landscape?

A cultural landscape is one that has been or will become a part of the daily life and the life-long memories of the people who traverse it. 

Why did you get involved in the landscape that was threatened in your community?

The existence of the Battery was never threatened in its designation as parkland, but its cultural life was truly threatened because it had been neglected for so long. It had been rebuilt over 50 years ago and then left to wither. It was downtrodden and used mostly as a pass through to more sought-after destinations like the statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

I was asked by Betsy Barlow Rogers, founder of the Central Park Conservancy, to create a non profit for the Battery in a similar model. A master plan for rebuilding the Battery had been drafted and had passed public review, but was just sitting on the shelf waiting for a civic engine to push it along.  With Betsy’s leadership and guidance I began to work.

I loved the waterfronts of New York and felt that, in the next twenty years, they would be the new open spaces that the city so desperately needs. The Battery is where the City began and it could lead the way in great design and innovation for other waterfronts and water views to follow.

How did your understanding of this landscape change as a result of your advocacy efforts?

In the mids, the planning team of Ehrenkrantz and Eckstut with pioneering historic preservation landscap

Mrs. Bush's Remarks at a First Bloom Event

Castle Clinton National Park
New York City, New York

A.M. EDT

MRS. BUSH: Thank you. LizBeth just said she was very nervous, but we couldn't tell. You did a really great job. Thank you very much.

And Chris, thank you also. Thank you for talking about Lady Bird Johnson. I actually got a letter from Lady Bird Johnson a few years ago, and she wanted me to know about Battery Park. And she wanted me to meet Warrie Price. And that's how I met Warrie Price, was because Lady Bird Johnson wrote me, and I had the chance to come here and tour the Battery with Warrie Price. And it looks better every time I come, more and more planting. And I'm so thrilled to have this chance to be here with you today.

And especially with the members of the Boys Club of New York and the Lower East Side Girls Club. Thank you all for joining us today. (Applause.) I got to plant a few native plants with the members of these two, the Girls Club and the Boys Club. They've done garden design. They've studied what they wanted to plant, the specific plants they wanted to put in. They've learned about native plants. They've learned about invasive non-native plants. And I'm very proud to have this chance to be with them.

Thank you, Vin Cipolla, the President of the National Park Foundation. Thank you for what you do. (Applause.) I also want to introduce Regan Gammon, who is the Citizen Chair of the National Park Foundation. She's with us here. And of course recognize Warrie Price again, and Maria Burks, the National Park Service Commissioner for the National Parks of New York Harbor and the Superintendent of the Manhattan Sites. (Applause.) Thank you very much for everything you do. And I do hope that all the boys and girls here get an idea in your mind about a job that you might grow up to want to have, and that is working in our national parks, from our historical sites, like the White House - I actually live in a national park - to our mo

Somali model, author, actress, and activist (born )

Waris Dirie (Somali: Waris Diiriye; born 21 October ) is a Somali model, author, actress and human rights activist in the fight against female genital mutilation (FGM). From to , she was a UN special ambassador against FGM. In she founded her own organization in Vienna, the Desert Flower Foundation. She has won numerous awards recognizing her work on eradicating FGM, including the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur ().

Born in Somalia, she moved to London where she began her modeling career. She was a model for top brands such as Chanel, Levi's, L'Oréal and Revlon. As a model, Dirie was the first black woman to appear in an Oil of Olay advertisement. In , Dirie played a minor role in the James Bond film The Living Daylights.

In , at the height of her modeling career, Dirie spoke publicly for the first time with the women's magazine Marie Claire about the FGM that she had undergone as a child, and would become a UN special ambassador against FGM that same year. She has created a platform for raising awareness about FGM that includes numerous foundations, campaigns, books, and documentaries. Her first book, Desert Flower (), is an autobiography that went on to become an international bestseller, selling over 11 million copies worldwide, and inspired the film Desert Flower (). She created two foundations: Desert Flower Foundation, an organisation whose goal is to eradicate female genital mutilation worldwide, and the Desert Dawn Foundation, which raises money for schools and clinics in her native Somalia.

Early life

Dirie was born as one of twelve children into a nomadic family in in the area of Galkayo. Her first name, Waris, means des