NY luxury condos boast Eden-like gardens

[NEW YORK] Deborah Nevins is one of the most sought-after landscape designers in the world. She has seeded and sodded estates for the likes of David Geffen, Stavros Niarchos and Rupert Murdoch, and her haute habitats dot townhouse backyards and pre-war rooftops from Greenwich Village to Park Avenue.

For her latest project, she is turning what would otherwise be a barren air shaft inside a new Tribeca loft building, the Sterling Mason, into a lush 1,000-square-foot courtyard. Hawthorn trees telegraph the seasons, from rich white blossoms to lush green leaves, red berries and spindly branches. Ivy creeps along the ground, framing a sculptural stream.

"It should be a remarkably peaceful space," said Dan McInerney, a vice-president for Taconic Investment Partners, which is building the 32-unit Sterling Mason.