Back in 2014, the designer Thomas Heatherwick unveiled plans for a floating island park at Pier 55 on the Hudson River. Conceived as a ‘treasure island’ with an undulating topography, dense foliage, and public spaces for performance, the artificial island would replace the dilapidated Pier 55 and adjacent Pier 54, where the RMS Carpathia once docked carrying the survivors from the Titanic.
Pier 55 would come in at a cost of $130 million, with the bulk of the money coming from the power couple Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg. The American media mogul and Belgian fashion designer pledged $113 million for the building of the park, the largest private donation to a public park in New York history, with the rest of the cash stumped up by the state and the city.
Construction on the site started in 2016, but drew to a halt the following year amid soaring costs and legal challenges from the City Club of New York, who cited environmental concerns and received backing from the real estate developer Douglas Durst. The project appeared to be dead and buried, but forty-three days later Andrew Cuomo kicked off his gubernatorial campaign by brokering a deal which secured additional funds and took steps to protect the marine estuary.
Now known as Little Island, the park finally opened to the public on Friday. At an eventual cost of around $260 million, most of which came from the Diller – von Furstenberg Family Foundation, the park covers 2.4 acres as part of the Hudson River Park, which through its patchwork of pathways, piers, and recreational sites stretches 4.5 miles along the waterfront down the West Side of Manhattan.
Little Island comprises 132 playful tulip planters delicately poised atop concrete pilings which press deep into the riverbed. The structural integrity of the park was overseen by Arup Group, and from two esplanades which jut out from the edge of the Meatpacking District and Chelsea, the park can welcome as many as 1,000 simultaneous visitors, with free entry via timed tickets.
The original Pier 54 piles remain to provide a habitat for the local aquatic life. Nestled atop all of the concrete are more than 350 species of flowers, 114 trees which hope to grow as high as 60 feet, lawns, a central plaza with concession stands, and three stages for performance including a 687-seat amphitheatre dubbed ‘The Amph’. Little Island will host live performances six days a week, with the tap dancer and choreographer Ayodele Casel, the playwright Tina Landau, the actor, singer, and musical director Michael McElroy, and the storytelling troupe PigPen Theatre Co. the first artists in residence.
Programming will commence on 14 June and reach an early climax come 4 July, when Little Island will welcome the American Ballet Theatre and Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. In the meantime visitors are encouraged to enjoy the exclusive Little Island cocktails and the landscape design by Signe Nielsen of MNLA, which promises to change by the season while offering dazzling views over the Hudson River.
