Twelve hundred tons of sand arrived at Hudson River Park in Augustthe tiny bit of green space on the western edge of Manhattan, and it only took a quarter of a century to get there.
In 1998, when Governor George E. Pataki signed the law authorizing the park’s creation, he promised it would have a beach. Now, on the 25th anniversary of the Hudson River Park Act — which turned a swath of dilapidated warehouses and rotting docks along the City’s mightiest river into a sprawling network of parks — residents can finally move their fingers. feet in the sand.
The beach is part of an effort to complete the park and unite its dissimilar sections, which have been developed over the years. The newest projects are Gansevoort Peninsula, a recreational area that includes the beach as part of a $73 million redevelopment, and Pier 97, a $47 million portion that features grass, winding paths and a large Children area.
Hudson River Park, the largest park built in Manhattan since Central Park, attracts 17 million visits a year and has helped spur real estate development on the West Side. Developers have poured billions of dollars into transforming neighborhoods along the park, a former industrial zone, attracting companies like IAC, a digital media firm, and legions of residents to new towers overlooking the river.
“It’s like they said, ‘Build the park and development will follow,’” said Robert Freudenberg, vice president of the nonprofit Regional Plan Association.
Hudson River Park arose to solve a problem: what to do with a dying seawall after industry and commerce left.
Manhattan’s western shore south of 59th Street was the thriving center of New York’s maritime economy in the early 20th century. But much of that activity disappeared in the 1970s, following the decline of manufacturing and changes in transportation methods. Abandoned docks and warehouses attracted sunbathers, artists and members of the LGBTQ community. But the collapse of a section of the elevated West Side Highway, which ran parallel to the river, brought attention to the seedy area.
In the 1980s and 1990s a plan emerged to renovate many of the piers as park spaces, allow commercial businesses on others, and build an esplanade and bike path connecting to the 500-acre park.
The first green space, Pier 45 in the West Village, opened in 2003. With the removal of the abandoned buildings on the boardwalk and the reconstruction of the West Side Highway at ground level—and the river finally visible—the properties Inside they became more desirable.
A pair of waterfront condo towers in the West Village, designed by Richard Meier, was one of the first signs of real change.
“That really stood out,” said Connie Fishman, director of a fundraising partner for the Hudson River Park Trust, the public corporation that develops and operates the park.
By 2016, neighborhoods along the park were leading development in Manhattan. A parade of buildings by the best architects emerged. Entertainment mogul Barry Diller hired Frank Gehry to design IAC headquarters with a white glass façade tilted to evoke the sails of a ship. The Whitney Museum of American Art has moved from the Upper East Side to a battleship-colored building designed by Renzo Piano on a site facing the Gansevoort Peninsula in the Meatpacking District.
Two blocks away is Little Island, a mini park that rests on concrete planters planted on the site of another former pier. It was funded by a foundation started by Diller and his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg. As new structures were built, old ones were renovated. Pier 57, a 1950s engineering marvel on West 15th Street, has a new food court and Google offices. Since the food court opened in April, pedestrian crossings to the park have more than doubled.
With Pier 97 and Gansevoort Peninsula, the public portions of Hudson River Park are nearly complete, said Noreen Doyle, president of the park trust. The beach occupies much of the south side of the 2.2 hectare peninsula.
Lisa Switkin, a partner at the landscape architecture firm Field Operations, took off her shoes on a recent tour. “She feels great,” she said.
By: JANE MARGOLIES
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6941683, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-10-17 19:20:10
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