BY NANCY A. RUHLING
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY HUDSON RIVER PARK TRUS
Pier 64, Manhattan’s newest green thumb of parkland, confidently thrusts its sloping lawns and grove of English Oaks out into the Hudson River as if hailing a water taxi.
Opened this spring, the pier and the upland property that runs from 24th to 26th Streets in Chelsea is the latest section of Hudson River Park, the 550-acre open space and recreational area, which extends along the Manhattan shoreline from Battery Park City to West 59th Street, to be unveiled. Its completion is a milestone: Some 60 percent of the project, which has been more than a decade in the making, is finished.
“Each addition to Hudson River Park makes this magnificent treasure an even greater gift to our city and state,” says Diana Taylor, chair of the Hudson River Park Trust board of directors. “It is thrilling to witness the continued construction progress as the park becomes a beautiful finished product.”
Although Hudson River Park, which is governed by a 1998 law, originally was projected to be completed in 2010, Connie Fishman, president of Hudson River Park Trust, says that that date has been extended to 2015. “And that’s the earliest that it will be done,” Taylor says. “Yes, it’s taking a little longer, but given everything—permits and funding—it’s not too bad. When Piers 25 and 26 and 62 and 63 open, which we expect will be in 2010, we’ll be 80 percent finished.”
Taylor is confident of the 2010 projection because the project, which is jointly financed annually by the city and the state, already has had its 2009/2010 funds—$13 million—approved. So far, Piers 34, 45, 46, 51, 54, 64, 66, 84, 86, 95, and 96, plus the Pier 66A Float bridge have been developed and are open to the public. “Pier 54 is used as an interim public pier,” she adds, “but it, too, will be rebuilt.”
Four other pier developments are in the works: Piers 62 and 63 in Chelsea are under construction and are slated to be completed in May 2010; Piers 25 and 26 in Tribeca are set to be finished in fall 2010.
Piers 62 and 63, including Chelsea Cove, will have a new marine infrastructure, a skate park, a great lawn, a carousel, a sitting garden, and an artist-designed boulder and wildflower garden. This area, combined with Pier 64 and the Chelsea upland, will be the largest contiguous piece of green in the park.
Amenities at Piers 25 and 26 will include areas for skating, basketball, beach volleyball, field sports, miniature golf, and a playground. There also will be a mooring field for boats, a water taxi stop and community dock, and a bit north of the pier, historic ships.
On July 30, the trust gave the green light to Youngwoo & Associates to develop Pier 57 at West 15th Street. The privately financed development, whose architects are LOT-EK and Beyer, Blinder Belle and whose landscape architect is West 8 New York, will include an arts/crafts/jewelry market run by Urban Space Management, which manages Union Square and Grand Central Station. The pier building, a historic landmark, will be applying for LEED certification. Its roof will be used by the Tribeca Film Festival for outdoor entertainments and by the public as a park. The international auctioneer Phillips de Pury & Co., which has offices on 15th Street across from the pier, will move its headquarters to the pier building.
Pre-development is expected to take 22 months, and construction will be finished in about 18 months.
Five other park/pier areas are in a holding pattern:
• Pier 97, at West 57th Street, the next one slated for redevelopment, houses a New York City Sanitation Department truck parking lot, which will be vacated in fall 2009. Construction is set to start in 2011.
• Pier 54, at West 13th Street, will be rehabbed, probably in 2011.
• Pier 40’s popular athletic fields were completed in 2005. A green section between the pier and Laight Street is landscaped with nearly 30,000 plants, trees, and shrubs and features a boardwalk and public art, including a trio of serpentine steel sculptures that adorn a 20-foot pedestrian esplanade that features seating and a seaside setting. The commercial portion, which probably will be financed with private money, is pending. Although requests for proposals were submitted, none, according to Fishman, matched the minimum requirements, so the trust is considering how to proceed at the site at West Houston Street in Tribeca.
• The Gansevoort Peninsula’s 7.5 acres at West 14th Street, the site of an old landfill, will be turned into a park sometime after 2013 when its New York City Sanitation Department parking lot is removed.
• Pier 76, on West 38th Street, is the site of a New York City towing pound. It will become a half-public and half-commercial space when the pound is relocated. No time frame is available.
“In general,” Fishman says, “it takes about 18 months to complete the reconstruction of each pier, plus a year to develop the park.”
Taylor says the impact of the park goes far beyond its geographical boundaries. “We have essentially taken under-utilized, formerly vacant, decaying industrial land and turned it into acres and acres of new ‘green’ space for New York City residents and visitors to enjoy,” she says. “As New York and other cities work on ‘going green,’ Hudson River Park will be looked upon as a model of how to successfully recycle outdated industrial infrastructure into parkland and other beneficial uses.”
Hudson River Park includes a number of green elements beyond its verdant property. Most notably, the aquatic life, including the striped bass for which it is known, and its 400-acre estuary, are protected, and the manmade additions are as environmentally friendly as possible.
“The bikeway, which is rated by Transportation Alternatives as one of the busiest in America, provides a serious green transportation alternative,” Fishman says. “We don’t have many buildings on the park properties—just bathrooms and boathouses—but we build with materials that have a long lifespan and are low maintenance. Up until Pier 57, we haven’t had the opportunity to do a true green building because all of the buildings so far have been small.”
The landscaping on the park’s green spaces, Fishman points out, includes native plants that don’t need much care and that can withstand the wind and saltwater. “Because the Hudson River Park is on the water,” he says, “its impact comes from what it is and where it is. There’s a huge psychological benefit that comes from open space on the water.”
Hudson River Park, which is the largest open space project in Manhattan since the opening of Central Park more than a century and a half ago, is changing the landscape of the city. “It created an entire West Side building boom, and in a very short time,” Taylor says. “This has all come about since 2003, when the first part of the park, in Greenwich Village, opened.”
A.J. Pietrantone, executive director of Friends of Hudson River Park, the community-based nonprofit organization that is dedicated to completing the project, says that the “park definitely enhanced property values” in the completed areas and “all along the park, we can expect a similar outcome.”
According to a study by Friends that was released in September 2008 and based on data from 2002 through 2005, the Greenwich Village section of the park, the first completed, increased the value of property by up to $200 million. Prices of adjacent condo developments increased by 80 percent; in comparable neighboring non-park areas to the north and south, the increase was only 45 percent. “What’s clear is that values began to rise only when construction of the park began,” Pietrantone says. “And the park has made it more attractive for high-end developments, including the Richard Meier project.”
Pietrantone points out that during the 16 years since the plan for the park was introduced, property values in Greenwich Village increased 300 percent compared with 200 percent in all of Manhattan. And from 2003 to 2005, the average sale price rose 135 percent compared with 110 percent in other areas. Condo prices, too, got a boost; in 2006, they were 20 percent to 35 percent above the average prices in other areas.
Hudson River Park joins several other city projects, including the High Line, East River Park, Governors Island, and the Brooklyn Bridge Park—which, when complete, will turn the city into a virtual park paradise.
So far the project has cost $366 million, and Fishman estimates that it will take another $124 million to finish it. “One thing that people may not know is that we’re self-sustaining,” she says. “We have no public operating funds; we support the park from the revenues of our tenants.”
To ensure the maintenance of the park, Friends of Hudson River Park has recommended the establishment of a Business Improvement District that would assess fees on adjacent property owners. “The objective is to preserve the quality of the park’s condition,” Pietrantone says. “Water-based parks like Hudson River Park are more expensive to maintain than land-based parks, and we receive no government funding for operations. In order for the park to be completely self-sustaining, there would have to be much more development than has been planned, and that, of course, would mean less open and public green space.”
Hudson River Park, which greens the neighborhoods of Battery Park City, Tribeca, Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Midtown/Clinton, and Clinton, has been a huge success and popular tourist destination. Some 17 million visitors are attracted not only by its beautiful river views but also by a variety of attractions that include the Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Circle Line Sightseeing, and the Bike and Roll bicycle rental company.
Fishman believes that Hudson River Park is likely to lead the way for the further greening of Manhattan. “Most of the waterfront will be turned into open space and recreational areas,” she says. “The idea fits in with the city’s overall waterway plan and greenway plan. Everybody sees the value of it.”
