'Floating' park on Hudson river

The Hudson River Park Trust in New York City has voted unanimously to approve a plan to build a $130 million pier, with lush greenery and an outdoor programme space, on the Hudson river.

The so-called ‘floating park’ is the brainchild of billionaire mogul Barry Diller and his wife, the fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg. The 2.4-acre park, officially called Pier 55, will rise out of the river, 186 feet from the shorelines, near West 14th Street. News reports state that the park is scheduled to open to the public
sometime in 2019.

Barrywill contribute $113 million for construction and will finance the park’s maintenance for 20 years. The city is coming up with $17 million, and the State of New York will provide $18 million toward an expanded public esplanade between Bloomfield and 14th Street.

Barry’s largesse is the single biggest private donation to a public park in New York’s history, eclipsing a $100 million gift that hedge fund manager John Paulson bestowed on the Central Park Conservatory in 2012.

More than half of the performances held at the pier’s 700-seat amphitheatre will be free or low-cost, according to a 20-year lease awarded to Barry’s P55 non-profit organisation. He said they would produce works “across all forms of performance – musical, musical comedy, concert, pop concerts, ballet, etc.”

Construction work on the pier project is expected to begin next year. Heatherwick Studios has been commissioned to design the floating park. Heatherwick, which built a garden bridge over the River Thames in London, will work with landscape architects Signe Nielsen, who designed the Tribeca section of the Hudson River Park.

The new pier would replace the existing, albeit crumbling, Pier 54, which once served as Hudson River Park’s main performance venue. The parallelogram-shaped pier would be built atop 300 concrete columns that range in height from 15-62 feet above the water level.