Warrie Price, founder and president of The Battery Conservancy has committed her life to civic service and historic preservation. She is renowned for rebuilding the southern tip of Manhattan. The Battery was in a sorry state 30 years ago. Where others saw ruins she saw 25 acres of rich history and untapped promise.

After raising $170 million via public-private partnerships, the entire area has been revitalized and Castle Clinton, a 19th-century fort, has been restored. The landscape has been transformed into a horticultural oasis that attracts more than 7 million visitors annually. 

Warrie tapped Piet Oudolf for his first garden design in the United States. Currently, the largest free park in North America, the Battery’s gardens include 240,000 square feet of perennials, a seven-acre woodland, an urban farm, a glass carousel, 90,000 square feet of toxin-free lawn, and a children’s playscape. After 9/11 the park became a refuge and beacon of hope, and it continues to welcome people every day of the year.

Before founding the conservancy, Warrie was a founder of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, worked in the US Foreign Service, completed a Master in Public Administration from Harvard, and held various civic leadership positions in NYC.

Warrie shows that the best of the past can have a future and has created a model for successful urban historic preservation and revitalization.