A whimsical new park that appears to float on stilts above the Hudson River was opened to the public on Friday just off the Manhattan waterfront, four years after a fight between media mogul Barry Diller and a billionaire. real estate developer threatens to derail it.
The new park, called “Little Island” but nicknamed “Diller Island” while under construction, was built with $ 260 million from the foundation of Diller, the former CEO of 20th Century Fox, and his wife, the fashion designer. Diane von Furstenberg.
The park joins a series of piers along Manhattan’s west side that have been remodeled for recreational use in the past 20 years, but its unusual design sets it apart.
Little Island’s flowers, trees, and performance spaces rest on 132 concrete pots that the park’s creators call tulip pots.
The pots are set on stilts of varying heights, so that the paths wind through the 1 hectare park with a gentle, undulating slope.
The park can be accessed by two bridges.
The design is by Thomas Heatherwick, who also created the Hudson Yards climbing structure known as Vessel, about 20 blocks north of Little Island.
Diller, also a major donor to the nearby High Line, has spoken of Little Island as an enchanted forest or a visit to Oz.
“All of this is an oasis of everything fun, whimsical and playful that we can conjure up,” he says in a video posted on the park’s website.
Plans for the project, which is part of the state-run Hudson River Park, were announced in 2014, but several lawsuits were filed arguing that the park had been planned without public input and that it could threaten marine wildlife.
Faced with rising costs from litigation, Diller announced in September 2017 that it was withdrawing the project. He agreed to revive the project the following month after Governor Andrew Cuomo negotiated a deal.
The Little Island will be open from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily, but there will be tickets scheduled from noon to 8 p.m., at least until September, said executive director Trish Santini.
In mid-June the musical, theater and dance shows will begin.
In the park’s amphitheater, which seats 687 people, there will be a mix of free and paid performances. A smaller stage in an area called Glade will host other performances.
New Yorkers and visitors strolling the High Line or biking the boardwalk have seen the Little Island put together, piece by piece.
The concrete tulips supporting the park were manufactured and assembled in upstate New York and floated up the Hudson by barges, four at a time, Santini said.
Planting began after the huge tulips, which some liken to mushrooms, were in place in late 2019. The park’s landscaping was designed by Signe Nielsen of Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects to evoke a leaf floating on water. It has 35 species of trees, 65 species of shrubs and 290 types of herbs, vines and perennials.
Little Island’s man-made hills offer views of the Hudson on one side and the city on the other, but the park’s carefully constructed topography makes it feel like a little world of its own.
“I think it will represent for New York a place to go to rest and restore, but also to ignite your imagination and remind all of us that we are creative,” Santini said. “My hope is that people come back again and again because they realize that every time they come there is always something new and fun to do.”
The “Little Island” administration posted a message on twitter picking up a twitter from our sister station NY1 reporter Roger Clark, where the first visitors to the park are seen early Friday. “Welcome”, writes the account of @littleislandnyc
— LittleIslandNYC (@littleislandnyc) May 21, 2021
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