Archinect - News

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...

Construction of Heatherwick + Signe Nielsen-designed Pier 55 to begin this summer

2016-04-29T14:43:00-04:00

Work will go ahead to construct an “elevated island park” in the Hudson River off Manhattan after a judge dismissed a lawsuit from environmental and civic advocates. The $130m park, which has been given the go-ahead by the US Army’s Corps of Engineers, will be based on the Hudson River... Judge Joan Lobis, who threw out the lawsuit, said: “A significant purpose of maintaining event spaces in the park is to generate funds for the ongoing upkeep of the park, which is surely a park purpose.”

Previously on Archinect:

Looking at all sides of the Pier 55 offshore park development

Barry Diller Pledges $130M for Futuristic Offshore Park on the West Side

New York Design Commission awards own president

2014-07-11T13:29:00-04:00

The New York City Design Commission presented its annual awards for excellence in public design on 7 July—and among the winners is a company run by the commission’s president. Signe Nielsen, who has been the government agency’s president since 2012, is also a principal at Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects. [...] This is not the first time that Nielsen’s firm has been recognised by the Design Commission while she has been at the head of the award-giving body.