Sara Zewde's Living Tribute to the Spirit and Story of Harlem

"But look up from 125th Street and you might just spy a banana leaf waving above, where AD100 landscape architect Sara Zewde has designed a must-see garden for the beloved 58-year-old institution, dedicated to the work of Black and African diaspora artists. On its rooftop, surrounded by sweeping city views, flora both familiar and unexpected now converge in homage to the neighborhood-its legacy and its future."

""Gardens aren't just things to look at," reflects Zewde. "They're important to how communities evolve and social movements happen." She is speaking from her parlor-level office at the corner of West 121st Street and Malcolm X Boulevard, where her conference room's broad window frames the bustling streetscape. "I always say I moved to Harlem, not New York City," notes the Louisiana native, who arrived in 2019 after stints in Seattle, Washington, DC, and a monthslong cross-country research trip."

"Proximity has its perks. Zewde's first meeting with museum leadership took place at a nearby coffee shop. Subsequent conversations with Thelma Golden, the museum's celebrated director and chief curator since 2005, have unfolded both on-site, at Zewde's office, and in passing, as the two crossed paths. "Thelma talked about the space as a gift to the neighborhood," recalls Zewde. "Thelma pushed us to not just think about Harlem as the Harlem Renaissance, but as a place creating its history every day. That conversation really shifted my thinking.""

The Studio Museum in Harlem features a rooftop garden by landscape architect Sara Zewde that brings together familiar and unexpected plantings to honor neighborhood legacy and future. The museum’s stacked, dark-gray cast concrete form now carries a visible canopy that signals cultural and botanical presence above 125th Street. Zewde emphasizes gardens as active social infrastructure that shape community evolution and movements. Living and working in Harlem enabled close collaboration with museum leadership and local residents. The museum leadership framed the rooftop as a gift to the neighborhood and urged thinking of Harlem as a living, ongoing place-making project.

Read at Architectural Digest