For this sculpture, I revisited our first sketch ( https://datastudio2020.datatherapy.org/2020/03/05/the-city-in-bloom/ )
The sculpture attempts to be an approximation of a tree, where the different branches are all the different trees that are in bloom in a neighborhood right now. Larger branches correspond to a larger population of trees (in this sketch, the white flowers have the largest branch), and the number of branching moments corresponds to the number of tree species that fit in that category of flower color.
In pursuing high fidelity in terms of materials, I ended up a little limited in palette (also, I should clarify — these are all fallen branches, no trees were harmed!)
Data: 2015 data from the NYC Tree Census from the NYC Parks Department. ++ information on tree flower colors