Larry Ragonese, the press director for DEP, says that it’s a moot point.
“This [Green Acres] is something that’s been here for about 27 years. It’s been something that people have gotten to see and look at,” he says. “We’re not making any comment on her work or whether we like it or don’t like it.”
Ragonese says that the decision to remove Green Acres reflects a desire to replace it with a greener feature. Though Tacha’s landscape architecture feature includes built-in planters, it’s primarily impervious cover.
“We’re looking as an environmental agency to do something more in a green fashion,” he says. “We’re not at odds with her, we’re not mad at her, we don’t dislike what she’s done.”
Ragonese says that there’s no hard deadline to remove the work, and that they’re only considering a process to put out a request for proposals or another path to replace the landscape-architecture work. He emphasizes that New Jersey will work with her to help her recover materials.
Tacha is challenging the decision altogether. In a June letter to Bocage, Tacha explains that her contract with the state prevents DEP from destroying Green Acres. She says her contract reads:
The State agrees that it will not intentionally alter, modify or change the art work in anyway but may remove the same. The State shall be responsible for the proper cleaning, maintenance and protection of the artwork. All repairs and restorations to the artwork which are made during the Artist’s lifetime shall have the Artist’s approval …
Further, she argues, her contract specifies that while the work may be removed, it cannot be destroyed. Tacha says that the feature is protected as an artwork under New Jersey law, and that “what is also clear is that the State may remove, but not destroy, Green Acres.”
Tacha is working with The Cultural Landscape Foundation to prevent demolition, according to Nord Wennerstrom, director of communications for the foundation.
Bocage declined to comment or clarify the legal concern. But Ragonese reiterates that the department did not intend any comment about Tacha as an artist. “We’re not out there with wheelbarrows to try to pull it up,” he says. “We’re not demeaning in any way what she did—there’s absolutely no intent to do that whatsoever.”