Archinect - News

Heatherwick Studio designs floating parkland pier for Seoul

2022-01-27T15:26:00-05:00

Heatherwick Studio has unveiled their proposal for a public waterfront development in Seoul, South Korea. The proposal forms part of a wider sports and cultural district close to the site of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

Named The Leaf, the Heatherwick scheme consists of a multi-level pier sitting on the Han River. The pier features a walkable roofscape with undulating surfaces, consisting of winding trails, water gardens, play areas, observation points, and an event/auditorium space. The roofscape folds upwards at the edges to create lower-level waterside spaces as well as a marina for water taxis and leisure craft.

Image via Heatherwick Studio

“At the heart of our project is the idea of playful togetherness,” said Heatherwick Partner and Project Lead, Stuart Wood. “We want this to be a refreshing and dynamic new civic space for the city of Seoul where people come to laugh, explore, and connect. Somewhere joyful and restorative for everyone.”

Heatherwick is one of a number of arch...

Heatherwick's $260 million elevated river park 'Little Island' opens in NYC

2021-05-20T14:01:00-04:00

Rising from the Hudson River, Little Island preens atop a bouquet of tulip-shaped columns, begging to be posted on Instagram. Outside, it’s eye candy. Inside, a charmer, with killer views.

NYT critic Michael Kimmelman reviews the anticipated elevated river park Little Island (formerly known as Pier 55) which opens on Manhattan's Hudson River bank this week.

Designed by Thomas Heatherwick and Signe Nielsen of NY-based landscape architecture firm MNLA, the $260 million parcel resting on a forest of tulip-shaped concrete pillars had a rocky start and was pronounced dead at some point during years of legal controversy. The now completed attraction impresses with urban green space, river vistas, several new event venues and summer programming atop an engineering feat realized by Arup.

Photo: Michael Grimm.

"I’ve become a Heatherwick skeptic lately, but his contribution here is in the theatrical vein of 18th century English garden follies," Kimmelman writes, adding, "not least because Little Island can remind you more of a private estate than a city park. It’s clearly going to cost a king’s ransom to maintain, a burden the Hudson River Park Trust (which is to say the public...

New Pier 26 opens at NYC's Hudson River Park

2020-10-01T14:34:00-04:00

Expanding a park usually means modifying an existing landscape. The designers of Pier 26 faced a far more daunting challenge: creating an entirely new one in the swift current of the Hudson River. [...] The latest addition to Hudson River Park, this 2.5-acre expanse is the city’s only public pier dedicated to river ecology.

Heatherwick Studio and company release new design for San Francisco's piers

2020-09-21T13:16:00-04:00

Heatherwick Studio together with Earthprise and a team of experienced local waterfront and biodiversity specialists have unveiled The Cove, a new vision for San Francisco's Piers 30-32. The part of the bay has been closed for over 36 years due to a devastating fire that decimated the original piers.

The ecological park and community hub takes as a two-building workplace campus with a central 5-acre ecological public park. The building area totals about 550,000 gross square feet. The modular design of the structures, inspired by the region's original pier sheds, can accommodate workspace for a single tenant or multiple tenants.

According to the design team the entire Cove is smaller than the original pier footprint, has less bay fill, and is highly sustainable, and plans for net-zero carbon and International Living Future Institute certifications.

"Like the coronavirus pandemic and the recent northern California fires, and Loma Prieta before it, climate change, sea level rise, and...

Aaaand it's back: Heatherwick's Pier 55 happening after all

2017-10-26T13:03:00-04:00

Pier 55, the elaborate $250 million performing arts center on an undulating pier in the Hudson River, is back from the dead. Forty-three days ago, Barry Diller, the entertainment mogul behind the plan, pulled the plug on the project [...] Now, in an agreement brokered by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, Mr. Diller agreed to revive the project, known as “Diller Island,” and opponents who had filed a series of lawsuits to stop the plan agreed to drop their legal battle.

In never-ending-money-and-politics-tale news: "Diller Island," the controversial Pier 55 park structure floating in New York's Hudson River, isn't so dead after all after reports of a Governor Cuomo-brokered agreement between billionaire financier Barry Diller and opponents surfaced yesterday.

"In return, Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, has promised to complete the 4.5-mile-long Hudson River Park," the New York Times writes, "which stretches along the waterfront from Battery Park City to 59th Street and includes Pier 55 at the foot of 14th Street — and to protect the marine estuary from development."

We're holding our breath.

$5.2M contract approved for new St. Petersburg Pier

2015-07-09T20:57:00-04:00

City of St. Petersburg officials formally approved a $5.2 million contract that will ultimately lead to the construction of the new St. Petersburg Pier. The team consisting of Rogers Partners, ASD, and WORKSHOP: Ken Smith Landscape Architect had the winning proposal for the second run of the St. Petersburg Pier competition that launched last summer. The competition sought a redesign of the pier, but also required the preservation of the structure's iconic inverted pyramid.

The approved $5.2 million will go toward the finalization of design details, demolition of the current Pier, and approach and initial contracting services. The City issued a press statement indicating that the design phase is scheduled to take five months and will include feedback from residents. The community will have additional opportunities to learn more about the redesign during the design refinement process.

The winning proposal, titled "The Pier Park", builds upon the Pier's eclectic history that dates back t...

"The Pier Park" wins New St. Petersburg Pier competition

2015-04-27T15:38:00-04:00

After public comments were provided, the committee discussed the concepts, the input they had received, and deliberated on the ranking. The final ranking of the Design Concepts by the Selection Committee is as follows: The Pier Park by Rogers Partners Architects+Urban Designers, ASD, Ken Smith Destination St. Pete Pier by St. Pete Design Group ALMA by Alfonso Architects, inc. City staff will now present these rankings to City Council for approval at a meeting in the near future.

"We established a pier process that citizens on every side of this issue agreed would result in a fair and objective decision," said St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman. "I am proud that we have stayed true to that process and that it has been transparent and open to the public throughout. I thank the Selection Committee for their diligence and their hard work. This was not an easy job, but it was a necessary one. The iconic St. Petersburg Pier has often been the source of passionate debate in the Sunshine City, but it is also a source of great pride. I'm looking forward to the day we cut the ribbon on a new St. Petersburg Pier."

Click here to see the full The Pier Park proposal (PDF).

Previously:

Three teams left to compete for St. Petersburg Pier redesign

2015-04-15T19:11:00-04:00

Just three proposals left in the second attempt of the St. Petersburg Pier design competition in St. Petersburg, Florida. Back in 2012, "The Lens" by Michael Maltzan Architecture and Tom Leader Studio won the original competition, but that design was kicked to the curb after local group Concerned Citizens of St. Pete fiercely opposed it -- mostly because it eliminated the pier's iconic inverted pyramid that was built in 1973. The group's request to preserve the pyramid became a requirement for RFQ #2.

A final shortlist of seven new proposals was revealed last December. The Pier Selection Committee convened on March 20 to discuss each proposal, and then narrowed down the list to the following three proposals and their current designs:

ALMA by Alfonso Architects
Original proposal.

Destination St. Pete Pier by St. Pete Design Group
Original proposal.

The Pier Park by Rogers Partners Architects+Urban Designers, ASD, Ken Smith
Original proposal.

Each team is now preparing responses to an additio...

New St. Pete Pier – Finalists 2.0

2014-12-30T17:51:00-05:00

Second time's the charm — that's what the eight finalists of the New St. Pete Pier competition must be thinking.

After the first attempt of an architectural competition to redesign the iconic pier in St. Petersburg, FL was off to a bad start (remember? Michael Maltzan's entry "The Lens" was first crowned as winning entry and, after a heated debate, quickly fed to the sharks and never realized), the City of St. Petersburg launched a second RFQ for the pier's redesign.

The latest brief incorporated one of the core arguments brought forward against "The Lens" by the group Concerned Citizens of St. Pete — the preservation of the signature Inverted Pyramid structure built in 1973.

Eight finalists have now been presented to the public; each team equipped with a $30,000 stipend to develop initial design concepts, cost estimates and detailed reports.

↑ Discover Bay Life by VOA - View concept (PDF)

↑ The Pier Park by Rogers Partners Architects+Urban Designers, ASD, Ken Smith - View concept (PDF)

↑...

A second chance for a new St. Petersburg Pier

2014-08-18T19:34:00-04:00

The City of St. Petersburg is up for attempt #2 in selecting a new architect to redesign the historic St. Petersburg Pier after the first proposal, "The Lens", was met with controversy and never built -- even after revisions were made.

In hopes that a new iconic Pier can be built this time around, the City recently set up a two-stage Request for Qualifications where balancing community input will be key. Once the September 5 deadline passes, each Statement of Qualification will be reviewed by the seven-member Selection Committee who will shortlist up to eight teams to be invited to Stage II. Shortlisted teams will each receive a $30,000 stipend and 10 weeks to submit a complete initial design concept.

After a technical review to analyze the concept's feasibility and budget, the committee will select the finalists, whose concepts will be presented to both the committee and the general public. The public will then have the chance to vote in a public survey. The committee will take resu...

Kalvebod Waves aspires to become Copenhagen’s new waterfront attraction

2013-09-05T14:08:00-04:00

The harbor-front project "Kalvebod Waves" officially opened on Aug. 30 at the Kalvebod Pier [...] in Copenhagen. The design by Julien de Smedt Architects and KLAR with support from Sloth Møller and Niras Engineers won first prize in a competition from December 2008. Not far from the popular Islands Brygge Park in the city, Kalvebod Waves is the latest phase of a long-term plan that aims to revive a formerly desolate section of the pier into a welcoming hub for urban and water activities.

Navy Pier remake adds urban park elements

2013-05-20T14:53:00-04:00

Some members of Chicago's design community have said privately that the Navy Pier project's parameters, which limited the scope of changes, stifled creative possibilities, even for highly regarded designers such as Corner. "Anything that makes it more parklike is all to the good," said eclectic Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman. "It can only go up, architecturally."

Atlantic City boardwalk collapse as Hurricane Sandy slams coast

2012-10-30T13:19:00-04:00

According to police, the famed boardwalk's north end is collapsing.This is happening while wave heights 100 miles off the coast of New Jersey are likely to hit 30 feet or more.

50 feet of Seaside Heights' Funtown Pier collapse from Hurricane Sandy

2012-10-30T13:11:00-04:00

About 50 feet of the Funtown Pier at Seaside Heights Boardwalk has collapsed and washed up on the beach as a pile of wooden beams and twisted fencing. The collapse, which happened within the last hour, caused no injuries, according to Seaside Park Police Chief Frances Larkin.

Faliro Pier Athens by Point Supreme Architects

2012-10-18T17:55:00-04:00

Greek firm Point Supreme Architects has shared with us their latest project, Faliro Pier Athens. The proposal has recently emerged as the winning entry in a competition in conjunction with Athen's ambitious Stavros Niarchos Cultural Park project which started construction a few days ago.

Scientists propose more realistic vision for Michael Maltzan's pier's underwater garden

2012-08-13T15:06:00-04:00

This week, architects and city staff met with marine scientists for the first time and heard the verdict: Maltzan's dream of a Key West-style reef with corals and easily visible sea life would remain just that in Tampa Bay waters. Now the architect is going back to the drawing board, looking for more realistic ways to present the centerpiece feature of the Lens, as the replacement of the current Pier is known.

James Corner Field Operations’ Winning Design for Navy Pier Redesign

2012-03-20T14:14:00-04:00

The team led by James Corner Field Operations has been selected as the winner in the international Navy Pier Redesign Competition. The Pierscape concept is part of the larger vision for Chicago's famous Navy Pier called The Centennial Vision, which seeks to make the "People’s Pier a truly iconic and world-class destination as it approaches its 100th anniversary in 2016."

The JCFO Team also included Terry Guen Design Associates, nArchitects, Leo Villareal, L’Observatoire International, Ed Marszewski, Fluidity, Patrick Blanc, John Greenlee & Associates, Chris Wangro, Billings Jackson, Buro Happold, Primera, HR&A Advisors, ETM Associates, Bruce Mau Design, and d’Escoto, Inc.

The winning proposal beat out stiff competition from the other four finalist teams, AECOM/Bjarke Ingels Group, Aedas Architects/Davis Brody Bond/Martha Schwartz Partners, !melk/HOK/Urban Lab, and Xavier Vendrell Studio/Grimshaw Architects.

Michael Maltzan’s “The Lens” Wins St. Petersburg Pier Competition

2012-01-20T13:41:00-05:00

This morning, the jury at the international St. Petersburg Pier competition announced "The Lens" proposal as the winning entry. Designed by Los Angeles firm Michael Maltzan Architecture in collaboration with landscape architects Tom Leader Studio, the scheme proposes a network of looping walkways and sweeping bridges which will add a landmark to the waterfront of St. Petersburg, Florida. The jury, three architects and two elected officials, selected the concept unanimously.

The Design Finalists for the St. Pete Pier

2011-11-30T17:32:52-05:00

The entries in the Pier Design Contest are in, and the options are as interesting as they are different. The three architectural firms, selected from a field of nine diverse semi finalists yesterday are Michael Maltzan Architecture, West 8 Urban Design and Landscape Architecture, and BIG.

Big Name Semi-Finalists for the St. Petersburg Pier Design Competition

2011-07-30T10:35:00-04:00

Six New York City firms were selected, including BIG, which Saitowitz said had designs of past projects that were "jaw dropping."

On Friday, a five-member panel narrowed down a list of 23 firms and teams competing to design a new $50 million Pier to nine semifinalists. They are:

West 8 Urban Design, New York City
Michael Maltzan Architecture, Los Angeles
BIG, New York City
James Corner Field Operations, New York City
HOK, Tampa
Frederic Schwartz, New York City
Weiss/Manfredi Architectural/Landscape/Urbanism, NYC
Farshid Moussavi Architecture, London
!melk Urban Design, NYC