A nest in the tree family — the first of many

The Children's Magical Treehouse is an adventure play space and a wilderness learning space, both at once, both fully. It is built from raw Black Locust cut trees — posts rising from the earth like the forest itself — holding two levels of Black Locust platform and Black Locust railings shaped into a nest. The nest is the form. The nest is also the feeling: held, safe, alive, looking out at the garden from inside the canopy.

This is the first treehouse in what will become a family of them, linked by netting bridges as Children's Magical Garden grows and as the tree family grows with it. Every future treehouse begins here, in this first nest, in this first Mulberry.

AreshEarth carries the design, the community process, the build leadership, and the ecological imagination. Roderick Romero brings his lifetime of treehouse wisdom as adviser — the one you call when you want to make sure the nest will hold, and hold beautifully, for generations.

Raw Black Locust, two levels, a nest in the canopy

The structure rises from the earth on raw Black Locust cut-tree posts — naturally felled, naturally shaped, planted into the garden on helical piles placed carefully beyond the Mulberry's root family. Two Black Locust platforms, one above the other, create the levels. Black Locust branch railings, woven and lashed, form the nest wall: curving, organic, holding. Rope netting <¾" spans between the railing branches as the inner safety mesh. The whole structure breathes.

Freestanding and tree-independent, the treehouse lives beside the Mulberry and Maple trees, a neighbor rather than a burden. And it is the first: the anchor treehouse from which netting bridges will one day reach to the next platform, and the next, as the garden's tree family grows.

Structural specifications

Materials — ecological and beautiful

Working with the city, one careful step at a time

Multi-level height and public access place this project in the DOB permit required category. The goal is classification as an "Educational Platform / Adventure Play Amenity." Three tracks run in parallel — DOB structural, NYC Parks/GreenThumb, and arborist tree protection — with the CB3 resolution as warm backing for all three.

Calling curious, creative, mission-aligned collaborators

Beginning June 24, 2026, AreshEarth is welcoming one or more summer interns to support the Children's Magical Treehouse project. This is not a research-and-report role. This is a real project in motion, with real community partners, real permit tracks, and real build days ahead — and the intern/s will be part of all of it.

What intern/s will do

• Lead the pro bono architect search — research who is aligned, who has community garden or ecological play structure experience, and who would be genuinely excited to be part of this specific project. Draft outreach emails and the AIA NYC pro bono project brief.
• Research the 6BC Botanical Garden permit pathway in depth — what exactly was filed, how the structure was classified, who the architect of record was, and what can be replicated for CMG.
• Support the DOB Letter of Inquiry — research, structure, and co-write the formal inquiry to the Manhattan Borough Commissioner.
• Help coordinate the community design day — logistics, outreach to LES families and school partners, documentation, and follow-up. The day the neighborhood names the treehouse.
• Support "Name a Branch" and "Steward a Tree" campaign launch — content, outreach, and coordination. Both can be live before the permit is finalized.
• Attend site visits at Children's Magical Garden and contribute to build-day community energy when the time comes.
• Bring their own skills and curiosity to whatever the project needs that week — this is a living, growing project and the intern/s grow with it.

Who we're looking for

• Students or recent graduates in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, environmental studies, community design, or related fields — or anyone with a genuine passion for any of the above.
• People comfortable making phone calls, writing emails, doing research, and following up — the connective tissue that holds a project in motion.
• People who believe a nest-shaped treehouse in a community garden on the Lower East Side is a serious act of ecological and community joy, and who want to help build it.
• Bilingual candidates (Spanish/English especially) are warmly welcomed, given the garden's community and history.

What it takes to build a nest worth climbing

Target fundraising goal: $70,000–$90,000 — accounting for pro bono architectural services (strongly possible), Romero's advisory rate rather than lead-builder rate, and in-kind contributions from regional Black Locust forestry partners.

Growing the resources as the garden grows

Forty-three years of community history. A ten-year legal victory. A CB3 resolution in hand. A nest-shaped treehouse that will be the first of many. The story is extraordinary — the task is putting it in front of the right people, with the right ask, in the right season.

Government & Council

Foundations

LES Hotels — Community Partner Sponsorships

LES & Downtown Businesses — Genuine Partners

Real Estate — Documented Community Benefit Only

Organizations — In-Kind, Volunteer Power & Co-Sponsorship

• NYC Service — skilled volunteer matching (carpenters, arborists, riggers at no cost via the Mayor's volunteer platform)
• Tenement Museum — joint programming and cross-promotion for fundraising events; aligned LES history missions
• Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES) — co-sponsor a "LES Greens" community fundraising event; deeply aligned mission
• Asian American Federation — amplify fundraising reach across the LES Chinese and Asian-American community
• Grand Street Settlement — youth programming partnership for the treehouse education curriculum; the kids who help design it become its first stewards
• Urban Justice Center — co-present the CMG legal victory story at fundraising events; the narrative of community sovereignty is theirs too

People-Power Fundraising

Finding the right creative partner — a task for our summer intern/s

The permit track requires an architect of record. The design track benefits from someone who understands living structures, community process, and the poetry of building with wood that still looks like a tree. The summer intern/s beginning June 24 will lead the outreach to these firms — research, contact, and relationship-building as their first real task.

Season by season, tree by tree

Where we begin — June 24 and forward