Just one month after the Thomas Heatherwick-designed Pier 55 project in New York City was declared dead in the water, opposing parties seem to have come to an agreement that will allow the project to continue, thanks to the intervention of New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo.
In early September, after opponents of the project, including the City Club of New York, developer Douglas Durst and environmental activists, had successfully mired the project in a legal battle, the project’s primary backer Barry Diller decided to pull the plug. But now, in an agreement brokered by the governor, the project will be allowed to move forward in exchange for a promise to complete the 4.5-mile-long Hudson River Park – a project which began in 1998 with an intended completion date of 2003.
Today, only 70 percent of the park has been built, and the managing group, the Hudson River Park Trust, has struggled to find the funding necessary for both new construction and maintenance of what has been completed. The cost to finish the project had been estimated to cost nearly $200 million, but state officials have not yet stated how much funding will be allocated.
The Pier 55 project had previously come under fire for rising cost estimates and for potential threat to the river ecosystem.
Mr. Diller said in a statement, “I’m going to make one last attempt to revive plans to build the park, so that the intended beneficiaries of our endeavor can fall in love with Pier 55 in the way all of us have.”
See past coverage here, or read the full story here.
News via New York Times, Curbed.
Heatherwick's Floating Pier 55 in New York Officially Abandonded
Six months after preparatory site work was halted by legal action, plans for the Heatherwick Studio-designed Pier 55 park along the Hudson River in New York City have been abandoned. Primary backer Barry Diller, chairman of IAC/InterActive Corporation, announced the decision yesterday, citing ballooning costs and gear-halting legal worries.
