Pier 97, Hudson River Park’s northernmost pier, will be getting a $38 million park designed by !melk. The pier, located off of 57th Street and 12th Avenue, was used as a docking pier until the 1970s and then as a Department of Sanitation parking lot but has most recently been repurposed as an outdoor music venue. The 680-foot-by-120-foot lot will soon be packed with playscapes, a sports field, sun lawn, seating areas, and landscaping, offering coveted outdoor space in a space-strapped city.
The West Side Highway and Bjarke Ingel’s triangular VIA 57 West will serve as the park’s backdrop, while an elevated promenade will overlook the Hudson River. “We wanted to give the pier a significant identity because it’s kind of like the gateway to Hudson River Park. What we tried to do was bring a sort of romanticism back, all squeezed into the limited real estate that we have,” Jerry van Eyck, principal of !melk, told Curbed.
Hudson River Park, which snakes from West 59th Street down to Tribeca on Manhattan’s West Side, is currently undergoing an extensive $1 billion renovation. The park is comprised of dozens of repurposed piers in various stages of completion and design. The Gansevoort Peninsula across from the Whitney Museum of American Art is slated to get a sports field and beach, while further downtown, Pier 26’s boardwalk is currently under construction. Yet, not all of the piers will be solely park space—Pier 57 at West 15th Street will be home to Google and City Winery offices, stretching Google’s already expansive Chelsea campus from 8th Avenue to the shining pier. Though a designated commercial pier, Pier 57 will have a public rooftop park and esplanade in addition to paying for part of the park operations.
Construction on Pier 97 will begin fall 2020, with an anticipated opening by spring 2022.
