New York to get island park designed by Garden Bridge team

Pier 55: the planned park in New York

An island park designed by the creator of London’s Garden Bridge will begin construction in New York almost in parallel with the Thames project.

Heatherwick Studio’s 2.7-acre elevated park over the Hudson River, called Pier 55, features undulating hillocks and a public amphitheatre.

Construction of the £89 million pier is due to begin this summer, almost in tandem with the Garden Bridge, after final consent was agreed.

Pier 55 reaches 164ft from the Chelsea shoreline, and has trees, grass and viewing platforms, co-created with landscape architects Mathews Nielsen.

The park is intended to be used for arts performances with a 700-seat amphitheatre for theatre and film shows.

Garden Bridge

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Pier 55 was mostly funded by billionaire media tycoon Barry Diller and his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, who pledged £77 million towards building it.

Mr Diller promised to pay 20 years of operating expenses. Critics of the replacement for the crumbling Pier 54 — where survivors from the Titanic were taken — launched court action amid claims the project would damage the environment, and over secrecy around negotiations.

The City Club of New York said: “Should private donors determine the future of public places?” But Heatherwick Studio called the pier “a place of discovery, where visitors can wander and wonder, finding something new around every corner”.

Mr Diller told the New York Times: “Rich or poor or in-between, artistic or not, nothing in our process and planning involves being exclusionary to anyone, and instead, in every demonstrable way, the opposite.” New York mayor Bill de Blasio said of the project’s funding: “I know a good deal when I see one.”

The Garden Bridge is due for completion in late 2018. About £60 million of its £175 million budget is from the public purse. Objectors say access will be restricted and a new 24-hour road crossing is needed instead. @_MarkBlunden

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