London designer Thomas Heatherwick and landscape architect Mathews Nielsen have teamed up on an ambitious proposal to build a floating park, 56 metres off the Hudson River shoreline.
Intended to replace the dilapidated Pier 54, the new and improved ‘Pier 55’ features a 10,000-square-metre, parallelogram-shaped island held up over the water by a cluster of mushroom-shaped columns.
A landscaped arrangement of vegetation, public spaces and performance venues fill the undulating site, while the elevated platform allows sunlight to still reach the marine sanctuary in the river below.
The development is being funded by media mogul Barry Diller and his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, who have pledged to contribute $113 million to build the floating park.
The rest of the project will be financed by funds from the city, state and the Hudson River Park Trust.
If approved, the park would open in late 2019.
Courtesy Architizer
