A plant-built replica of One Vanderbilt has joined the miniature New York skyline at the New York Botanical Garden’s Holiday Train Show, opening Saturday in the Bronx for its 35th year.

Though the exhibit is called the “Holiday Train Show,” its miniature buildings are often the main attraction. Visitors discuss their favorite New York landmarks, including some that no longer exist.

“The trains, they're the narrators,” said Laura Busse Dolan, president and CEO of Applied Imagination, whose artists build the show’s replicas. “They're at the heart of New York City and they're at the heart of the show.”

“All the different routes and the movement they create through the display are fundamental to the design,” she added.

A security guard working in the conservatory said children “go crazy when they see Thomas,” the Thomas the Tank Engine train that appears in a corner of the show.

“You hear them screaming,” she said.

“Charming and nostalgic model trains travel past miniature landmarks made of plant materials, making for a truly special holiday experience,” Jennifer Bernstein, NYBG’s chief executive and president, said at a media preview Tuesday.

Bernstein said the show began in 1992 as a modest seasonal display. Its buildings now run from Gilded Age mansions to modern landmarks, she said, and this year’s addition is “one of New York City’s newest architectural icons.”

The 1,401-foot Midtown skyscraper One Vanderbilt, which opened in September 2020, is the newest of nearly 200 landmark models in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, each made from plant parts such as palm fronds, pinecones and cinnamon sticks.

SL Green Realty Corp., the developer of One Vanderbilt, helped pay for the model. NYBG’s page credits SL Green and the Summit OV Foundation with special funding but does not reveal the amount.

Two people from SUMMIT One Vanderbilt and SL Green spoke with Urgent Matter at the preview: Nastassia Welter, SUMMIT’s vice president of sales, and James Clark, senior vice president and controller at SL Green.

Welter said SL Green became involved after Clark, whom she called “a big fan of the botanical gardens,” visited with his family and made it his mission to include the building in the train show.

“And then we connected with NYBG, and everything started within the 18-month mark from the first conversation to when the build actually started being there,” Welter said.

Clark was asked if the botanical garden was immediately on board when they reached out.

“We have a relationship with the garden, and it was a very natural fit between us and the garden,” he told Urgent Matter.

Last year’s new buildings were the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Delacorte Theater, NYBG said in its 2025 announcement.

Welter said the garden and its artists worked with the tower’s engineers and KPF, the architecture firm that designed One Vanderbilt.

“NYBG and the artists, they connected with our engineers, as well as the architecture firm KPF to make sure that the model was a replica of what One Vanderbilt is with all of the details,” Welter said.

The model reproduces the tower down to the restaurant at its base, Welter said. The idea for the model started with the SUMMIT team a couple of years ago.

“You see Grand Central literally by the side of our building,” Welter said.

Welter said the show brings together nature and architecture, “old, new and the most incredible skyline that we have.”

Dolan said the buildings do not return to the same places each year. Much thought goes into their presentations annually.

“Always change the arrangement,” Dolan said. “I think it’s so important to do that because people see them in a different way, in a different light.”

The Whitney model has moved from the spot it held in 2025, she said.

Between seasons, the models are “all stored in a climate-controlled environment,” she said. Still, made of natural materials, they require some maintenance during installation each year.

Dolan said the newest buildings bring “a whole different challenge” than older “buildings where you have this very grandiose, ornate, sculpted architecture.”

Asked whether Applied Imagination adds new models every year, Dolan said, “I want more and more and more and more and more.” She said they have never actually turned down a potential new addition to the display.

Dolan said visitors tell her they came to the show as children and now bring their own kids. She called the show’s buildings man-made landmarks “celebrated in plant form.”

“35 years, you know, it hasn’t slowed down yet,” she said.

Asked whether people would ever tire of the show, Dolan said, “In a day and age like we live in, where technology is ruling all of our lives, this is a chance for people to slow down and enjoy nature and seeing it in a different way.”

“It’s a chance for families and friends to reconnect,” she said. “I hope that this never gets old.”

The show runs through January 10, 2027, with a members-only preview on November 13.

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