By now, everyone has heard about the new Pier55 plan for Hudson River Park. The high-powered husband-and-wife team of Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg have pledged $113 million to build a new 2.7-acre “fantasy island” for “world class” performances off of W. 13th St. The city will kick in an additional $17 million toward the construction.
In something new for Hudson River Park, the glitzy square-shaped pier would sport a rolling landscape — some might say it looks more like a rollercoaster — with three corner “peaks,” one of them towering 71 feet tall, or equal to about seven stories. The pier would sit higher than other existing piers, in order to be safely above the floodplain in the post-Sandy era.
Because of the pier’s higher elevation, the idea was — instead of jamming it up next to the historic bulkhead — to site it out in the river, accessible by two bridge-like entry paths that slope up to reach it.
The new structure would replace the existing historic Pier 54 (where the Titanic’s survivors debarked) and be situated just north of it — hence, Pier55. It would feature three performance spaces, including a 750-seat amphitheater, as well as a large central hardscape plaza, surrounded by hilly grass lawns, the combo of the latter two which would be able to seat up to 3,500 people total.
Fifty-one percent of the pier’s performances would be free or low cost. However, it’s currently not publicly known what ticket prices are envisioned for the other events. And it’s not known — again, at least not publicly — how many shows there will be during the peak summer season or for the whole year. Revenue from the shows would be funneled back into the pier’s programming.
According to an environmental assessment conducted for the plan, the idea is for programming to include “vocal, instrumental and other music; dramatic works, opera, theater and public readings of prose or poetry; public talks by academics, writers and public figures; performance art; dance performances; art displays, installations and exhibitions; films; and other similar events.”
Also according to the environmental assessment, crowd sizes at the events would be comparable to what they were when Pier 54 was hosting events. However, the report acknowledges that Pier55 could become an attraction in and of itself, and would draw an estimated 6,700 visitors on weekdays and 9,400 on weekend days. The overwhelming majority would come on foot, the study says. The study uses figures from the larger High Line park — a wildly popular nearby attraction — and a proportional formula to arrive at these numbers.
To accommodate the crowds using the new pier, utilizing $18 million in state funds, the park’s esplanade will be widened between Gansevoort Peninsula and W. 14th St., in what is being called the Pier 54 Connector Project. And a new crosswalk, federally funded, will be created across the highway at W. 13th St.
As for noise levels from events at Pier 55, the study says they actually could be lower than those that used to be held at Pier 54, since, in some cases, the speakers would be pointed toward the southwest, away from Manhattan.
In terms of environmental impacts, the assessment states that pile driving of fewer than 400 new “pot”-style piles for the new pier (Pier 54 originally had more than 3,500 piles) won’t negatively impact migrating sturgeon and striped bass — or, for that matter, Atlantic moonfish, clearnose skate, fawn cusk eel, feather blenny, foureye butterflyfish, gizzard shad, hogchoker, inshore lizardfish, lookdown, naked goby, scup, threespine stickleback, windowpane, sand tiger shark or dusky shark, to name just a few.
Questions about whether view corridors would be blocked are also addressed in the study, which says only the view of the river down W. 13th St. would be affected, but not that severely — the river would still be visible underneath the extra-high, raised pier.
The Hudson River Park Trust, which runs the 4-mile-long waterfront park, has been saying that the current Pier 54 is no longer viable as a main performance pier for the park. A large section of it dropped into the water a few years ago, and parts of it have been judged unsafe, and so major events have already been moved elsewhere in the park. Plus, because of its long, thin shape and relatively narrow entrance area, it didn’t make sense to rebuild the pier in its current configuration, the Trust says.
This conveniently opened the door to the Pier55 project, for which the Trust found a very generous donor — Diller and DvF — willing to fund not only the new pier’s construction, but its operation, maintenance and programming for the next 20 years, with an option to extend that another 10 years. A nonprofit, Pier 55, Inc., helmed by Diller would operate the pier and program it with top performers.
Many will say this project is absolutely wonderful, a win-win in every sense — a beautiful and fully funded park arts pier that will be a terrific venue — like “Venice on the Hudson,” as von Furstenberg put it. As Assemblymember Deborah Glick told The Villager two weeks ago, “It’s a very difficult thing not to be happy about.”
At the same time, Glick has said the whole process was “shrouded in secrecy” up until a few weeks ago. And she’s absolutely right. The plan was simply rolled out to the media a few weeks ago as a virtual fait accompli.
But, again, as the assemblymember noted, when major donors give this supersized sort of money for a project, they tend to control the design process tightly, because they “don’t want to deal with the messy public process.”
But that won’t stop many neighbors and park activists from crying that there has been zero public review of this project so far — even as Pier55 was being cooked up clandestinely and designed for the past two years.
Glick has also expressed concern about the idea of a nonprofit — “a private interest,” as she described it — controlling public space in Hudson River Park.
According to the Trust, Pier55 is solely a park pier, as opposed to a pier designated fully or partially for commercial uses, and so a seven-month-long city-run ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure) process isn’t required, as would be mandated for redevelopment plans for Pier 40, for example.
What is legally required, though, is a public hearing.
The Villager received a presentation of the project last month from Madelyn Wils, the Trust’s president, and theater executive Kate Horton, a member of the team that would program the pier.
The public will now get its chance to hear and see the presentation at two upcoming public hearings.
The first presentation will be at the Community Board 2 Parks Committee meeting on Wed., Dec. 3, at 6:30 p.m., at the Village Community School, at 272 W. 10th St. David Gruber, the board’s outgoing chairperson, told The Villager that it’s not certain, at this point, if the C.B. 2 full board will vote later this month on a resolution recommending support or denial of the project. He said he’ll confer with incoming C.B. 2 Chairperson Tobi Bergman on how the board will proceed.
For its part, the Trust is required, as part of a 60-day public review and comment period, to hold a public hearing on the project, since Pier55 is definitely considered a “significant action” with regard to the park. That mandated hearing had previously been scheduled for Dec. 17, but, for some reason, has been pushed back to Mon., Jan. 12, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the N.Y.U. Kimmel Center, Eisner and Lubin Auditorium, 60 Washington Square South, fourth floor. The public will have an opportunity to comment on the plan at this hearing. (Photo ID is required to enter the building.)
Despite all the answers provided in the environmental assessment, not all will find them satisfactory.
As Glick put it, “This is an amazing gift but there are questions that still need to be answered.”
The two upcoming hearings will provide that opportunity for an extremely unique and potentially exciting project that has, however, just dropped out of thin air, as it were — or more appropriately, popped up right out of the river.
