Little Island at Pier 55 (stylized as Little Island @Pier55) is an artificial island and a public park within Hudson River Park, just off the western coast of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Heatherwick Studio, it is near the intersection of West Street and West 13th Street in the Meatpacking District and Chelsea neighborhoods of Manhattan. It is located atop Hudson River's Pier 55, connected to the rest of Hudson River Park by footbridges at 13th and 14th Streets. Little Island has two concession stands, a small stage, and a 687-seat amphitheater.
Little Island covers and is supported by 132 pot-shaped structures (called "tulips") suspended above the water, which in turn stand on 280 concrete pilings extending into the riverbed. The tops of the pots range from above the mean waterline. Engineer Arup Group oversaw the installation of the pots manufactured in upstate New York by the Fort Miller Company. The park has various lawns, paths, and plants, which were arranged by landscape architect Signe Nielsen. The plantings and soil were engineered to reduce erosion and were also arranged aesthetically.
Plans arose in November 2014 for a new park, known as Pier 55, designed by Heatherwick Studio and largely funded by Barry Diller and Diane von Fürstenberg, with some funding from the New York City and state governments. Originally, construction was to begin in 2015 and the park would have been completed in 2018 or 2019. However, the park's construction was delayed by lawsuits from the City Club of New York. Plans for the park were scrapped in September 2017 due to lawsuits and cost overruns. The next month, the proposal was revived when New York Governor Andrew Cuomo agreed to provide funding for the park. Construction of the structure began in April 2018 and a symbolic cornerstone was laid in December 2018. The project was renamed Little Island in 2019 and opened on May 21, 2021.
Description Little Island adjoins Hudson River Park near the intersection of West Street and West 13th Street in Manhattan. The park is in the Meatpacking District and Chelsea neighborhoods of Manhattan. Commissioned by businessman Barry Diller and designed by Thomas Heatherwick's company Heatherwick Studio, the park covers . It is accessible from two passageways extending across the water from Hudson River Park: a southern esplanade at Little West 12th Street and a northern esplanade at West 14th Street. The park can fit 1,000 people simultaneously. , the park opens every day at 6 a.m., with different ending times depending on the season.
Arup Group oversaw the structural design of the park. Numerous other firms were involved in the structural design, including precast cement contractor Fort Miller Company, marine consultant Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, and marine contractor Weeks Marine.
Structural design Little Island is supported by 132 pot-shaped structures, known as "tulips", which are suspended above the water. The tulips vary in height, sitting between above the mean waterline. The design was meant to protect the park from a 500-year flood, during which the water level in the river could rise as much as . The heights of the pots were intended to give the appearance of a floating leaf or a wave.
Each pot has four to six lightweight concrete sections, referred to as "petals", which are designed to reduce the load on the pilings. The precast concrete is also meant to be resistant to erosion and corrosion. The concrete pots were manufactured by the Fort Miller Company at their factory in Easton in Upstate New York. The Fort Miller Company hired a partner to create foam molds for the pieces of the pots using a laser cutter, then cleared out a 600-foot-long building for these foam pieces. Thirty-nine types of molds were fabricated. According to the company's president, "A full one-third of our annual production capacity was displaced by this project."
After the petals were manufactured, they were driven to the Port of Coeymans, a port on the Hudson River south of Albany, New York. At the Port of Coeymans, Weeks Marine assembled the individual petals and used a crane to load them onto barges. The barges typically traveled from the Port of Coeymans to Manhattan in 14 hours. Once in Manhattan, the pots were installed on their supports using a 350-ton crane. The largest support is tall and weighs . The pots stand on 267 or 280 concrete pilings, which extend at most into the bottom of the Hudson River. Each piling measures in diameter and can handle loads of . The pilings were hollowed at their cores, with metal guide rails to allow the pots to be installed without the pilings tipping over. The edges of the pots are placed apart. The pilings' design was intended to evoke the design of the exposed pilings under Pier 54, which had previously occupied the site. Some of the pilings still exist and are used as marine habitats.
Landscape Signe Nielsen of Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects was the landscape architect for the park, while BrightView Landscape Development was the landscape contractor. Nielsen "wanted New Yorkers to feel delight and excitement around every turn from the moment they set foot here." To accomplish this, the plantings were arranged in specific color patterns. For instance, a portion of the park was planted with yellow, gold, lavender, and purple plants contrasting with each other.
The landscape includes 35 tree species and 65 shrub species. In addition, there are 270 species of perennials and grasses, for a total of over 350 species of flora. At the park's opening in 2021, the landscape contained 66,000 bulbs and 114 trees. The original trees are up to tall with trunk diameters of . The trees are planted in of soil, which is stabilized by geofibers and fed by a large irrigation system. The composition of the soil was engineered to reduce erosion, and evergreens and other plantings were used to shield the park from strong winds from the Hudson River.
The park's four corners are designed with different topologies. There are three lawns, as well as a "secret garden" planted exclusively with white flora. One of the lawns, the Main Lawn, is in the center of the park. Alongside the landscapes, the park contains scenic observation areas as well as plazas and performance spaces. There are overlooks at the northwest, southwest, and southeast corners of the park. Walkways lead up to the highest portions of Little Island, in a layout similar to the southern portion of Governors Island. The park also contains objects that visitors could interact with, such as chimes, boulders, and spinning discs. Heatherwick Studio intended for both solo visitors and groups to play with these objects.
Concessions and programming
A portion of the park contains a small stage and two concession stands, operated by Union Square Events. According to Diller, the park's management had interviewed Danny Meyer's company for the concessionaire position before selecting a smaller firm, Savory Hospitality. Savory operates three concession stalls for food and drinks around a plaza called "The Play Ground". The drinks served at the concession stalls include cocktails that are custom-made for park visitors. The southern portion of the park contains "The Glade", an arts and crafts area for families and children.
There is also a 687-seat amphitheater nicknamed "The Amph", which is in the western end of Little Island. The Amph is on the north side of the park's tallest hill, where there is a flat pier with public restrooms and actors' changing rooms. The utilities had to be placed on top of the flat pier. At the park's opening in 2021, most events at the Amph were free but, for ticketed shows, thirty percent of tickets were to be sold online. The ticketed shows are largely free or have low admission fees, and educational programming and performances are scheduled for six days a week. The free or low admission fees were a term of Diller's lease agreement from the Hudson River Park Trust, which operates Hudson River Park. Under the terms of the agreement, at least 51 percent of tickets must be under 30 dollars, including tickets provided for free.
Planning and construction Initial proposal
By 2011, Hudson River Pier 55 was deteriorating, a situation that was worsened by Hurricane Sandy in New York the next year. At a 2011 party for donors of the High Line park, Diana Taylor of the Hudson River Park Trust approached Diller to determine his interest in rebuilding the pier. Diller supported the idea of rebuilding the pier but said he would like to be "ambitious" about the space. His initial concept called for a $35 million amoeba-shaped structure "with a few trees". Following storm surges caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Diller decided to raise the structure about compared with the original plans, making the park less vulnerable to flooding.
In November 2014, it was announced that a new park would be designed by Heatherwick Studio on the site of the former Pier 55 along the Hudson River. Estimates of the park ranged from between $130 million and $160 million. Diller's foundation, headed jointly by his wife Diane von Fürstenberg, contributed $100 million and made plans to donate another $30 million. The city and state promised to give $17 million and $18 million, respectively. At the time, construction was to begin in 2015 and end in 2018 or 2019. The project was provisionally known as Pier 55 and was to be built between the sites of Pier 54 and 56. The park was to float completely above the water, resting on 300 concrete pillars.
By 2015, the Hudson River Park Trust had approved plans to construct a park at 13th Street that extended west into the Hudson River. Manhattan Community Board 2 also supported plans for the park. Diller had cold-called Heatherwick to design a park at the site. According to Diller, the first plan was "completely unbuildable" and resembled "Noah's Ark in stainless steel". Heatherwick's subsequent plan for the raised concrete pots was designed over a year and a half, while it took Nielsen a year to engineer the individual pots to hold dirt. Von Fürstenberg had tried to convince Diller not to build the park, saying it was vulnerable to rising sea levels, but Diller said the plans were safe from a thousand-year flood. The project was nicknamed Diller Island because of Diller's close association with the project. According to von Fürstenberg, the park plans were all "Barry's dream".
Legal issues The City Club of New York filed a lawsuit to stop the park's construction in 2015, alleging that the plans had not undergone a proper environmental review and that the project was instead using an old review conducted on the demolition of the adjacent Pier 54. According to the City Club, the trust had concluded there were no adverse environmental effects in installing 547 deep pilings for the park. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) had yet to approve plans for the park. The plans received final approval in March 2016. The next month, a judge for the New York Supreme Court dismissed the case. The City Club filed an appeal, and a hearing was scheduled for September 2016. In the meantime, an appellate court placed an injunction in June 2016, temporarily stopping any further work from proceeding. Less than a month later, the injunction was partially lifted, allowing work on nine pilings to proceed. At the appellate hearing, representatives of Pier 55's developers argued that the trust had performed a proper environmental review. The court rejected the City Club's appeal. The suit was escalated to the New York Court of Appeals, which also rejected the appeal.