Former Chief of Tree Planting for NYC Parks and landscape architect behind many city projects, Clara Coffey, now has a park named after her. Clara Coffey was born in Eaton Rapids, Michigan in 1894. She earned her bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture in 1917 and went on to earn her master’s from the University of Michigan in 1919. She worked in Warren Manning’s Cleveland landscape design office from 1921-1922, before moving to New York to work for Ellen Biddle Shipman and Marian Cruger Coffin. In 1936 she accepted a position as Chief of Tree Planting for NYC Parks. Projects she spearheaded include the planting of trees along the Hutchinson River and Belt Parkways in 1941, and most notably the redesign of the Park Avenue Malls. This project did away with the unwelcoming fences and tall hedges, and replaced them with flowerbeds, seasonal flowers, and beautiful pink Kwazan Cherry Trees. In 1957 she started a partnership with Levine and Blumberg to design multiple playgrounds. If you've been to Clement Moore Park, Haffen Park, or Yellowstone Park in Queens, you have visited one of these parks. In 1977, Mayor Abraham Beame appointed her as professional landscape architect in residence for the Art Commission. Today, she is memorialized by Clara Coffey Park, which is one of the five Sutton Parks located alongside the East River on York Avenue.