As cooped-up New Yorkers flock to NYC's green spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic, a pier on Manhattan's west side has officially opened to offer more open air refuge.
Hudson River Park's Pier 26, nestled on Tribeca's waterfront, has been nearly a decade in the making. On Wednesday, the park's Trust opened the new park to the public.
"Seven years in the making, we are proud to open this entirely unique pier at a time when Hudson River Park has taken on new important for so many in the face of the current health crisis—providing a much-needed oasis in a city with limited green space," Madelyn Wils, the Hudson River Park Trust's president, said in a statement.
A part of the pier will have a "tide deck" intended to flood with the river's daily tidal cycle—mirroring wetlands that once lined the city's shoreline. Though the tidal area is only for guided tours and educational programming led by the park's staff, the public can walk along an elevated area above to view it. There's also kids' soccer fields and plenty of lounge space.
At the head of the pier, a long-planned science-themed playground and estuarium will be built once the Trust can raise enough funds. The estuarium—which would be built for people to see fish from the Hudson River, like a live aquarium—would double as a research and education center. Its anticipated price tag is $30 million, according to the NY Times. About $10 million had been raised as of last year.
The Trust is overseeing a slew of projects to complete Hudson River park—like Diller Island (renamed Little Island last fall) with a set of concrete tulips that form a wave-like pier. Pier 57 is set to become the Google pier, with three acres of public space and prime waterfront office space for the tech behemoth. Gansevoort Peninsula—with a beach area for Manhattan—is anticipated to break ground next spring. Hells Kitchen's Pier 97 will be redesigned with a lawn area and soccer fields. Further south in the Midtown neighborhood, Pier 76 could one day be redesigned, but first, the NYPD has to find a new location for Manhattan's tow pound.
Pier 26 was a $37.7 million public-private partnership funded by global banking behemoth Citi, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, and city and state money. It opened Wednesday after about two years of construction. "The pandemic demonstrates the importance of access to outdoor space, and the completion of this beautiful new space expands that access," said Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Vicki Been.
